Canada’s privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne announced that xAI violated the country’s federal private sector privacy law by launching its Grok AI-powered image generation tool without implementing adequate safeguards, allowing users to create and share sexualized deepfake images without consent.

The report, released Thursday, follows a probe initiated in January, after the Elon Musk-owned platform rolled out changes to prevent Grok from letting users edit images of real people in revealing clothing. Dufresne stated, “xAI violated Canada’s privacy law by launching Grok without appropriate safeguards from the outset.”

However, Dufresne lacks authority to impose fines or mandate policy changes; xAI has only committed to regularly monitoring for sexualized deepfakes proactively. The watchdog report coincides with a newly proposed digital safety bill for children, which would ban social media for under-16s unless companies meet safety standards.

xAI faces global scrutiny over sexualized images. In January, UK lawmaker Jess Asato sued xAI over deepfakes. Ofcom, Spain, the Netherlands, and the European Commission launched investigations. In the US, three teenage girls filed a class-action lawsuit alleging child sexual abuse material. Indonesia and Malaysia fully blocked Grok.

Source: www.aljazeera.com