Musk's Grok in hot water: French and Malaysian authorities probe sexualised deepfakes

As Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok recently stepped into the limelight over the purported generation of sexualised deepfakes of women and minors, France and Malaysia have joined India in condemning Grok's inappropriate content production.

French authorities have initiated a probe into the proliferation of sexually explicit deepfakes on X (formerly known as Twitter), while the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission is also investigating reported misuse of AI tools on the platform.

The chatbot, developed by Musk’s AI startup xAI and ingegrated into his social media platform X, issued an apology earlier this week, stating, “I deeply regret an incident on December 28, 2025, where I generated and shared an AI image of two young girls (estimated ages 12-16) in sexualised attire based on a user’s prompt.”

“This violated ethical standards and potentially US laws regarding child sexual abuse material. It was a failure in safeguards, and I’m sorry for any harm caused. xAI is reviewing its processes to prevent future issues,” the statement continued.

However, it has not been confirmed who is truly apologising or accepting responsibility in this context. Albert Burneko of Defector noted that Grok is “not in any real sense anything like an ‘I’,” rendering the apology “utterly without substance,” as Grok cannot be held accountable for the content it generates.

Moreover, Futurism reported that Grok has not only produced non-consensual pornographic images but has also been used to create visuals depicting women being assaulted and sexually abused.

Musk stated, “Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”

The development signifies that governments are taking action, with India’s IT ministry issuing an order requiring X to restrict Grok from generating obscene or illegal content.