Ireland’s data protection authority, representing the European, opened an investigation on Tuesday, February 17, into Elon Musk’s X over its AI chatbot Grok generating sexualized deepfake images.

The move marks the latest stage of international scrutiny over the tool.

The Data Protection Commission described it as a “large-scale inquiry” into possible violations of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation.

The probe will focus on “the alleged creation and distribution on X of potentially harmful, non-consensual intimate or sexualized images of Europeans, including children,” produced using Grok, the DPC said.

“The purpose of this investigation is to determine whether X complied with its obligations under the GDPR … with regard to the personal data processed of EU/EEA data subjects,” it said.

With X’s European headquarters based in Ireland, the DPC acts as the primary EU regulator enforcing the bloc’s rules on the platform.

DPC Deputy Commissioner, Graham Doyle, stated that the authority “has been in contact with X since media reports emerged several weeks ago regarding the alleged capability of X users to prompt the Grok chatbot to generate sexualized images of real individuals, including children.”

In response to the backlash over the deepfakes, several countries announced in January that they were launching investigations into Grok, ramping up regulatory pressure, and in some cases, blocking the tool entirely.

The EU also opened its own probe to determine whether X complied with the bloc’s Digital Services Act, which governs major online platforms.

However, X said last month that it would limit Grok’s image generation and editing features to paying subscribers.