Musk’s Grok accused of violating Canadian privacy laws on deepfakes

xAI’s Grok has violated Canadian privacy laws because it launched an image generator that can create and share sexualised deepfake images without users’ consent, according to a report by the country’s privacy commissioner following a January probe.

The official report, which was released on Thursday, comes after the Elon Musk-owned platform rolled out changes that would prevent Grok from allowing users to edit images of real people in revealing clothing.

“xAI violated Canada’s federal private sector privacy law by launching the Grok AI-powered image generation tool without implementing appropriate safeguards from the outset,” Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne said in a press conference on Thursday.

Dufresne, however, does not have the authority to impose fines or order policy changes for xAI, a subsidiary of SpaceX, which is set to go public on United States markets on Friday, marking the biggest initial public offering in modern history.

xAI has committed to regularly monitoring for sexualised deepfakes before an incident is reported, and not just in response to incidents, he said.

The watchdog report comes amidst a newly released digital safety bill aimed at children. The bill, if passed, would ban social media use for children under 16, with exceptions for companies that meet safety standards.

The legislation would create a digital regulator to help establish safety standards for AI chatbots, much like Grok.

Global scrutiny

xAI has been scrutinised across the globe for sexualised images on its platform.

Earlier this month, British lawmaker Jess Asato sued xAI amid deepfake sexualised images created of her on the platform.

In January, Ofcom, the United Kingdom’s media regulator, launched an investigation into the platform to see if it was adequately preventing the creation of deepfake sexualised images.

That month, the European Commission also condemned the spread of explicit content on X, with regulators calling it “appalling” and “disgusting”, leading to a probe.

In February, Spain launched a probe into Grok, and in March, a Dutch court ordered xAI to stop allowing the creation of nude images in the country.

Meanwhile, in the US, also in March, three teenage girls filed a class action lawsuit alleging that the platform allowed images that depicted child sexual abuse.