Elon Musk’s AI tool Grok faced mounting international backlash Monday for generating sexualized deepfakes of women and minors, with the European Union joining condemnation and Britain warning of a possible investigation.

Complaints of abuse spread rapidly online after the recent rollout of an “edit image” button on Grok, enabling users to alter images with prompts such as “put her in a bikini” or “remove her clothes.”

The digital undressing trend, following growing concern among tech watchdogs over proliferating AI “nudify” apps, prompted swift probes or calls for action from countries including France, India, and Malaysia.

The European Commission, acting as the EU’s digital watchdog, joined the criticism Monday, saying it was “very seriously looking” into complaints about Grok, developed by Musk’s startup xAI and integrated into his social media platform X.

“Grok is now offering a ‘spicy mode’ showing explicit sexual content with some output generated with childlike images. This is not spicy. This is illegal. This is appalling,” EU digital affairs spokesman Thomas Regnier said.

“This has no place in Europe.”

Britain’s media regulator Ofcom said it had made “urgent contact with X and xAI to understand what steps they have taken to comply with their legal duties to protect users in the UK.”

Depending on the response, Ofcom said it would then “determine whether there are potential compliance issues that warrant investigation.”

‘Horrifying’

Malaysia-based lawyer Azira Aziz said she was horrified after a user, apparently in the Philippines, prompted Grok to change her “profile picture to a bikini.”

“Innocent and playful use of AI, like putting sunglasses on public figures, is fine,” Aziz told AFP.

“But gender-based violence weaponizing AI against nonconsenting women and children must be firmly opposed,” she said, urging users to report violations to X and Malaysian authorities.

Other X users directly urged Musk to act against apparent pedophiles, “asking Grok to put bikinis on children.”

“Grok is now undressing photos of me as a child,” Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Musk’s children, wrote on X.

“This is objectively horrifying, illegal.”

When contacted by AFP, xAI responded with a brief automated message: “Legacy Media Lies.”

Amid the online uproar, Grok sought to reassure users on Friday that it was rushing to fix flaws in the tool.

“We’ve identified lapses in safeguards and are urgently fixing them,” Grok said on X.

“CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) is illegal and prohibited.”

Separately last week, Grok issued an apology for generating and sharing “an AI image of two young girls (estimated ages 12–16) in sexualized attire based on a user’s prompt.”

‘Grossly offensive’

The wave of reactions followed a move by Paris prosecutors last week to expand an investigation into X to include allegations that Grok was being used to generate and distribute child pornography.

The initial probe into X was opened in July after reports that the platform’s algorithm was being manipulated for foreign interference.

On Friday, Indian authorities ordered X to remove sexualized content, crack down on offending users, and submit an “Action Taken Report” within 72 hours or face legal consequences, local media reported.

The deadline passed on Monday, with no confirmation of a response from X.

Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Commission also voiced “serious concern” over complaints of “indecent, grossly offensive” content on X.

It said it was investigating the violations and would summon X representatives.

The criticism adds to growing scrutiny of Grok, which has faced accusations of spreading misinformation about crises, including the war in Gaza, the India-Pakistan conflict, and a deadly shooting in Australia.