Canada Privacy Commissioner Finds xAI Violated Law With Grok Image Tool

Canada’s privacy commissioner determined that xAI violated federal private sector privacy law by launching the Grok AI-powered image generation tool without implementing appropriate safeguards from the outset, the official report released on Thursday stated.

The probe began in January. Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne said xAI has committed to regularly monitoring for sexualised deepfakes before an incident is reported, and not just in response to incidents.

Dufresne does not have the authority to impose fines or order policy changes for xAI, a subsidiary of SpaceX. SpaceX is set to go public on United States markets on Friday, marking the biggest initial public offering in modern history. xAI rolled out changes that prevent Grok from allowing users to edit images of real people in revealing clothing.

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.

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