French and UK regulators have launched coordinated investigations into X and its AI chatbot Grok over allegations of generating illegal content, including child sexual abuse material. French authorities raided X’s Paris offices, while the UK’s ICO opened a probe into non-consensual sexual imagery. X’s owner Elon Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino have been summoned for questioning as the international scrutiny intensifies.
French authorities raided the Paris offices of social media platform X as part of a criminal investigation into alleged child pornography linked to its AI chatbot, Grok. The search was carried out by France’s cybercrime unit in coordination with Europol, which stated the probe concerns the dissemination of illegal content and other online criminal activity.
Prosecutors said X owner Elon Musk has been summoned for questioning, along with former chief executive Linda Yaccarino. The investigation centers on allegations that Grok was used to generate over 23,000 sexualized images of children. In a post, X‘s Global Government Affairs department denied wrongdoing, calling the raid a “politicized criminal investigation into alleged manipulation of algorithms and purported fraudulent data extraction.”
The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office simultaneously announced its own investigation into Grok. ICO Executive Director William Malcolm said the probe followed reports of the chatbot generating non‑consensual sexual imagery, including of children. He stated the concerns relate to whether personal data was processed lawfully and if appropriate safeguards were built into Grok’s design.
EU Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier recently called such content “illegal” and “appalling,” stating it has no place in Europe. The actions follow xAI‘s launch of a “Spicy Mode” for generating NSFW content and the recent acquisition of xAI by SpaceX. In January, xAI restricted Grok‘s image editing capabilities and blocked certain prompts related to generating images of people.
