Canada's federal privacy commissioner expanded an ongoing probe into whether X follows the law on using Canadians' personal information for AI training to cover sexualized deepfakes made by Grok, and opened a related investigation into xAI. The office notified the companies Wednesday and says it will consider xAI's subsequent update saying Grok can no longer edit real people into revealing clothing.
Philippine ICT Secretary Henry Rhoel Aguda said on Thursday the government is working to block xAI's Grok over its capability to generate sexually explicit deepfakes, with the CICC and the National Privacy Commission coordinating. He said the images fall under online sexual abuse or exploitation of children, adding that blocking "is not a push-button process." Malaysia and Indonesia blocked Grok first.
After X said late Wednesday it had stopped Grok from making sexualised images of people without consent "in those jurisdictions where it's illegal", the stand-alone Grok app was still undressing photos of real people on request on Thursday. Elon Musk said Grok will refuse to produce anything illegal; Britain's Ofcom said its formal investigation of X would continue.
Publishers Hachette Book Group and Cengage Group asked a California federal court on Thursday to let them intervene in a proposed class action accusing Google of misusing copyrighted work to train its AI. Their proposed complaint alleges Google copied Hachette books and Cengage textbooks without permission, citing 10 examples allegedly used to train Gemini. U.S. District Judge Eumi Lee will decide.
Jackson County deputies arrested Caleb Bourgeois, 36, on Wednesday on charges of sexual exploitation of children. They allege he hid a camera in a camper at last year's county junior fair, filming children changing, then used the images to generate AI videos of them performing sexual acts. He is held on $250,000 bail; authorities expect a complex investigation.
Ireland's Minister of State for AI, Niamh Smyth, told the Dáil that X "will face the full rigours of the law" over its Grok nudification tool, saying she would tell X executives at a Friday meeting that what happened "over the last week is illegal". She welcomed X's "corrective action" and urged a formal EU Commission investigation.
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust issued an alert over videos on Facebook and TikTok that falsely claim its clinicians use and endorse weight-loss products. The Trust said the videos appear AI-generated and do not show its doctors; a financial crime expert traced one so-called doctor's profile photo to a Romanian bank advert.
