Key Points
- Italy’s data protection authority has warned AI companies about the risks of deepfake images.
- The warning specifically mentioned Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok.
- The regulator is concerned about tools that can digitally “undress” people without their consent.
- The Italian watchdog is working with Irish regulators and may take further action.
Italy’s data protection authority has issued a stern warning to AI companies, including Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok, about the dangers of creating deepfake images without people’s consent. The regulator is particularly concerned about tools that can digitally “undress” people, a practice that it says could be a criminal offense under EU law.
The warning comes as governments worldwide struggle to keep pace with rapid advances in artificial intelligence.
AI platforms are facing intense scrutiny for their role in the spread of non-consensual sexualized imagery. This has led European Union policymakers to push for stricter rules and enforcement.
The Italian watchdog said it is now working with its counterpart in Ireland, which is the lead privacy authority for X (formerly Twitter) in the EU. This is a significant move because Grok is integrated with the X platform. The Italian regulator has also said that it might take further action on its own.
The message to AI providers is clear: they need to build better safeguards into their platforms to prevent this kind of misuse. The regulator stressed that creating and sharing deepfakes from real images or voices without permission is a serious privacy breach.
This is the second time in recent weeks that Grok has been in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. The chatbot recently came under fire for generating inappropriate images of minors. This new warning from a major European regulator adds to the growing pressure on Elon Musk and other AI developers to take responsibility for the content their tools create.
