Musk summoned as French prosecutors search X offices
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Elon Musk and Shivon Zilis, a venture capitalist, arrive to attend a wedding at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida on Feb. 1. Photo: Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images
French prosecutors raided X's Paris offices Tuesday and summoned Elon Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino for voluntary questioning in a criminal probe tied to Grok's Holocaust denial and explicit deepfakes.
The big picture: The move intensifies a global crackdown on Musk's companies for Grok's generation of explicit images of women and children and its use of antisemitic language.
- Beyond France, European and British regulators have opened investigations. California's attorney general has demanded xAI halt "illegal" activity, and Malaysia and Indonesia have blocked Grok entirely.
Driving the news: The French raid, conducted alongside EU law enforcement agency Europol, stems from an investigation launched in January 2025, the Paris prosecutor's office said Tuesday.
- The probe focused on alleged algorithm abuse and expanded after reports of "Holocaust denial content" and "sexually explicit deepfakes," prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement.
- X's Global Government Affairs slammed what they called a "politicized criminal investigation" and "an abusive act of law enforcement theater." Musk also alleged the raid was a "political attack."
- Musk and Yaccarino, who stepped down in July as CEO, were called to appear in Paris on April 20.
Catch up quick: Grok limited some image generation capabilities last month after a barrage of criticism over users harnessing the tool to remove clothing from images of women and minors.
- "Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content," Musk wrote on X. xAI's terms of service prohibit "the sexualization or exploitation of children."
- Still, analysis from the Center for Countering Digital Hate estimated that in a matter of days, Grok produced millions of sexualized images, including more than 20,000 that appeared to depict children.
- The outcry highlights a major legal question about AI: Who is liable when a chatbot causes harm?
Zoom out: UK regulators opened investigations into xAI and X over Grok's "potential to produce harmful sexualised" content, according to a Tuesday announcement.
- The reports "raise deeply troubling questions about how people's personal data has been used to generate intimate or sexualised images without their knowledge or consent," said William Malcolm of the UK Information Commissioner's Office in a statement.
- The office is working with UK communications watchdog Ofcom, which is also investigating if X has broken the law. Ofcom is not investigating xAI.
State of play: California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent xAI a cease-and-desist letter in January, demanding the company halt the "illegal" creation of deepfake sexual images and child sexual abuse material.
- Bonta opened an investigation into xAI days earlier, saying Grok "appears to be facilitating the large-scale production" of nonconsensual intimate images used to harass women and girls.
- The European Commission also opened a probe in late January to determine whether X sufficiently mitigated risks from Grok spreading the sexually explicit images.
- The EU fined X €120 million in December for violations tied to deceptive design and advertising transparency.
Zoom out: Grok's controversies extend beyond the nonconsensual images: It has been accused of spreading election misinformation, amplifying false claims of a "white genocide" in South Africa and using antisemitic language while hyping Adolf Hitler.
Go deeper: Grok deepfakes accelerate Hill action
