Arya News - Police have raided the French offices of Elon Musk’s X platform as part of a criminal investigation into sexually explicit deepfakes generated by its Grok AI chatbot.
Police have raided the French offices of Elon Musk’s X platform as part of a criminal investigation into sexually explicit deepfakes generated by its Grok AI chatbot.
The Paris prosecutor’s cybercrime unit is carrying out searches in the offices, with Europol and French police also involved.
Mr Musk, who bought X in 2022, and Linda Yaccarino, its former chief executive, have been summoned to appear for “voluntary hearings” in the French capital on April 20 as part of a widening investigation into the platform’s algorithms and artificial intelligence tools.
The investigation was started early last year after complaints from French members of parliament, who alleged that X’s recommendation systems were biased and may have distorted the operation of automated data-processing systems.
Since then, it has been broadened to examine a series of suspected offences, including the alleged facilitation of sexually explicit deepfakes, the spread of Holocaust denial material and the possible complicity in the possession and dissemination of illegal images involving minors.
A recent study estimated that Grok could have produced up to three million sexualised images in 11 days in January, including 23,000 of children.
Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, said she wished to question the pair as the “de facto and de jure managers” of X at the time of the alleged offences.
Several employees of the company have also been called to give evidence during the week beginning April 20.
Ms Beccuau said the decision to hold “voluntary hearings” reflected a “constructive approach” by investigators aimed at ensuring the platform’s compliance with French law, rather than pursuing immediate coercive measures.
She added that the executives would be given the opportunity to set out their position on the allegations and outline any steps being taken to bring the company into line with national regulations.
Ms Yaccarino resigned as chief executive of X in July last year, after two years in the role.
A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said it would be leaving X and would communicate on LinkedIn and Instagram.
The platform’s AI tool Grok was also criticised in the UK recently after users were able to use it to undress women . X continues to be investigated by Ofcom over whether it broke any UK laws with the feature.
Mr Musk has frequently used X to attack European leaders, who have accused the 54-year-old of interfering in domestic politics.
Several Western countries have taken steps to ban young people from using social media. Under-16s were banned from using social media, including X, in Australia last year, with similar measures to be implemented soon in France, Spain and the United Kingdom .
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