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\t\t\tIllustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins \/ Futurism. Source: Fabrice Coffrini \/ AFP via Getty Images\n\t<\/p>\n
It was only yesterday that Elon Musk announced that SpaceX had acquired his AI company xAI<\/a>, a merger that catapulted the rocket maker into being the most valuable private company in the world, but raised significant questions about bringing two firms with vastly different missions under the same wing.<\/p>\n Now, the freshly-joined entity is facing one of its first major tests. On Tuesday, French authorities raided the offices of X, Elon Musk\u2019s social media site owned by xAI, as part of its ongoing criminal investigation into the sexual deepfakes generated by its AI chatbot Grok<\/a>. Following the acquisition, of course, those X offices are now SpaceX offices.<\/p>\n The raid was carried out by the Paris Public Prosecutor Office\u2019s cybercrime unit, in collaboration with French police and Europol. And it\u2019s perhaps an early warning sign of how all the baggage that SpaceX is inheriting by bringing Musk\u2019s controversial AI efforts into the fold may haunt the company going forward.<\/p>\n In an announcement, the Paris prosecutors said it was investigating criminal offenses related to the distribution of \u201cchild pornography images,\u201d the infringement of personal rights through the generation of \u201csexual deepfakes,\u201d and the denial of \u201ccrimes against humanity,\u201d per NBC News<\/a>.<\/p>\n In addition to searching X\u2019s offices, Musk and X\u2019s former CEO Linda Yaccarino were issued a voluntary summons to appear and answer questions the week of April 20.<\/p>\n SpaceX is not without controversy: its Starship rocket has generated plenty of scrutiny and public backlash from its frequent explosions, which critics argue threaten public safety and flout environmental laws. But by and large, it\u2019s the most beloved Musk venture, as space exploration is something that earns a lot of public goodwill, serving some greater mission for all of humankind. Now, its image is undoubtedly being tainted by its association with xAI and Grok.<\/p>\n Grok in particular is no stranger to making the wrong kinds of headlines. Last month, French prosecutors opened an investigation into Musk\u2019s platform after the AI chatbot was used to generate nonconsensual sexualized images of real people, many of them appearing to be minors, in a weeks-long spree that started at the end of December and stretched into January.\u00a0<\/p>\n The digital \u201cundressing\u201d trend was so out of control that the AI content analysis firm Copyleaks estimated Grok was generating a nonconsensually sexualized image every single minute. In all, the Center for Countering Digital Hate estimated<\/a> that as many as 3,000,000 of these sexualized images were produced, including more than 23,000 images of children.<\/p>\n The prosecutor office also said it was investigating the distribution of Holocaust denial content on the platform. Far-right accounts have flourished under Musk\u2019s ownership of X, formerly Twitter, with Musk often resharing racist conspiracy theories and antisemitic rhetoric<\/a> \u2014 a habit mirrored by Grok, which gained notoriety for calling itself \u201cMechaHitler\u201d during a particularly racist posting spree<\/a> last summer.<\/p>\n Governments abroad have seemed to take Grok\u2019s AI nudes of women and children more seriously. Indonesia and Malaysia banned access to Grok, though the former has just lifted its ban<\/a> \u201cconditionally.\u201d UK prime minister Keir Starmer vowed to crackdown<\/a> on the chatbot and showed support for the nation\u2019s communications regulator Ofcom, after it announced its own investigation into Grok.<\/p>\n Mirroring developments across the channel, the UK\u2019s Information Commissioner\u2019s Office announced its own probe into Grok on Tuesday, over its \u201cpotential to produce harmful sexualized image and video content,\u201d per the BBC<\/a>. \u201cThe reports about Grok raise deeply troubling questions about how people\u2019s personal data has been used to generate intimate or sexualised images without their knowledge or consent, and whether the necessary safeguards were put in place to prevent this,\u201d William Malcolm, the ICO\u2019s executive director for regulatory risk and innovation, said in a statement.<\/p>\n