LONDON

The EU has launched an investigation into Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok and X's recommender systems under the Digital Services Act (DSA) over sexualized imagery, according to a statement on Monday.

The European Commission said it has launched a new formal investigation against X under the DSA, while the commission extended its ongoing investigation launched in December 2023 into X's compliance with its recommender systems risk management obligations.

"The new investigation will assess whether the company properly assessed and mitigated risks associated with the deployment of Grok's functionalities into X in the EU," said the statement.

It noted that this includes risks related to the dissemination of illegal content in the EU, "such as manipulated sexually explicit images, including content that may amount to child sexual abuse material."

The statement underlined that these risks seem to have materialized, exposing citizens in the EU to serious harm.

In light of this, the commission said it will further investigate whether X complies with its DSA obligations to "diligently assess and mitigate systemic risks, including the dissemination of illegal content," and "conduct and transmit to the Commission an ad hoc risk assessment report for Grok's functionalities in the X service."

'In-depth investigation as a matter of priority'

Separately, the commission extended its ongoing formal proceedings opened against X in December 2023 to establish whether X has properly assessed and mitigated all systemic risks, as defined in the DSA, associated with its recommender systems, including the impact of its recently announced switch to a Grok-based recommender system.

"If proven, these failures would constitute infringements of Articles 34(1) and (2), 35(1) and 42(2) of the DSA," added the statement.

It underlined that the commission will now carry out an in-depth investigation as a matter of priority.

The statement mentioned that the opening of formal proceedings empowers the commission to take further enforcement steps, such as adopting a non-compliance decision.

"The Commission is also empowered to accept any commitment made by X to remedy the matters subject to the proceeding."

X’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok has come under criticism following a social media trend in which users prompt Grok to modify or generate images of individuals in explicit portrayals without consent.

Musk, whose xAI developed Grok, said on Jan. 3 that users requesting the generation of illegal content would be treated as if they had uploaded illegal material themselves.​​​​​​​