AMSTERDAM, March 26 (Reuters) – A Dutch court on Thursday ordered Elon Musk’s xAI and chatbot Grok not to generate and distribute sexualized images of people without their consent in the Netherlands.
The decision in a civil suit is one of the first times a judge has weighed in on xAI’s responsibility for creating tools that can be used to create sexualized images, amid a flood of complaints and investigations over Grok in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia.
In a summary decision, the Amsterdam District Court said xAI and Grok would be prohibited from “generating and/or distributing sexual imagery … whereby persons are partially or wholly stripped naked without having given their explicit permission” and said it would impose fines of 100,000 euros ($115,350) per day if the companies do not comply.
The case was brought by Offlimits, a Dutch nonprofit group that combats online sexual abuse, in cooperation with the nonprofit Victims Support Fund.
xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A lawyer for xAI in the Netherlands referred questions to xAI.
Musk, the world’s richest person, launched Grok in 2023 and distributes it through his social media platform X, which, like xAI, is now part of his rocket and space exploration company SpaceX.
At a hearing this month, xAI lawyers had argued it was impossible to guarantee that abuse on its platform could be prevented, and the company should not be punished for the actions of malicious users.
They said the company had taken measures in January to prevent Grok from editing images of real people in revealing clothing, including restricting its image creation features to paid subscribers.
Offlimits director Robbert Hoving said judges had rejected that response. “The burden is on the company” to make sure its tools are not used to create and distribute nonconsensual sexual images, including of children, he said.
($1 = 0.8669 euros)
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Susan Fenton, Rod Nickel)
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