Paris office of X raided by French prosecutors

(Sharecast News) - The Paris office of Elon Musk's X has been raided by French authorities, it was confirmed on Tuesday, as a probe into the social media network was widened following complaints about artificial intelligence tool Grok.

Musk and Linda Yaccarino, X's former chief executive, have also been summoned to attend voluntary interviews in the French capital in April.

Grok is an advanced AI chatbot developed by the Musk-owned start-up xAI. Available on X, formerly Twitter, and as a standalone app, it caused widespread outrage earlier this month when it emerged it could be used to remove clothing from people in photos, including children, and put them in provocative poses without their consent.

It has also been highly criticised for stating antisemitic smears, including Holocaust denial.

In a statement on Tuesday, Parquet de Paris - the Paris public prosecutor's office - said the search had been carried out as part of an investigation by its own cybercrime unit, in conjunction with France's national cyber crimes unit and Europol.

France first launched a probe in July last year, looking at X's algorithms. But that was expanded following two reports in January "denouncing the operation of Grok on the X platform" over sexual deepfakes and Holocaust denial content.

The prosecutor's office noted: "The conduct of this investigation is at this stage part of a constructive approach, with the aim of ultimately ensuring that Platform X complies with French laws, insofar as it operates on the national territory."

The raids coincided with the UK's Information Commissioner's Office launching its own inquiry into X and xAI. Its investigation will assess how both companies process personal data in relation to Grok and its potential to produce harmful sexualised imagery.

William Malcolm, executive director, regulatory risk and innovation, at the ICO, said "troubling questions" had been raised about how people' personal data was being used.

"Our role is to address the data protection concerns at the centre of this," he added. "We are working closely with Ofcom and international regulators to ensure our roles are aligned and that people's safety and privacy are protected."

The UK media regulator launched a review of Grok earlier in January, while the European Commission announced its last week.

X has yet to comment on any of the developments on Tuesday. However, last July, when the French authorities first unveiled their initial probe, X denounced it as "politically-motivated criminal investigation".

Musk and Yaccarino have also yet to comment.

Earlier on Tuesday it emerged that Musk's rocket business SpaceX had agreed to acquire xAI for a reported $250bn.