The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has launched an investigation into X, a social media platform owned by American billionaire Elon Musk, over images generated by its artificial intelligence-powered chatbot Grok.
“The investigation concerns the alleged creation and publication on X of potentially harmful images of an intimate and/or sexualized nature containing or otherwise involving the processing of personal data of EU/EEA data subjects, including children, using generative AI functions linked to Grok's large language model in X“, the DPC said in a press release.
Announcing the investigation, Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said the DPC is working with X Internet Unlimited Company (XIUC) in response to reports of “X users being able to manipulate Grok's X account to generate sexually explicit images of real people, including children“. He noted that the investigation would determine XIUC's compliance with its obligations under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Similar investigations have previously been undertaken by the European Commission, the UK media regulator Ofcom and the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). X's offices in France were also searched in conjunction with Europol and the French Gendarmerie's cybercrime unit in connection with an investigation into the social network's algorithms and complaints about Holocaust denial material and artificially generated sexual images.