WASHINGTON: Elon Musk&#39;s AI tool Grok faced growing international backlash on Monday for generating sexualized deepfakes of women and minors, with the European Union joining the condemnation and Britain warning of an investigation. Complaints of abuse flooded the internet after the recent rollout of an &#39;edit image&#39; button on Grok, which enabled users to alter online images with prompts such as &quot;put her in a bikini&quot; or &quot;remove her clothes.&quot; The digital undressing spree, which follows growing concerns among tech campaigners over proliferating AI &quot;nudify&quot; apps, prompted swift probes or calls for remedial action from countries including France, India, and Malaysia. The European Commission, which acts as the EU&#39;s digital watchdog, joined the chorus on Monday, saying it was &quot;very seriously looking&quot; into the complaints about Grok, developed by Musk&#39;s startup xAI and integrated into his social media platform X. &quot;Grok is now offering a &#39;spicy mode&#39; showing explicit sexual content with some output generated with childlike images. This is not spicy. This is illegal. This is appalling,&quot; said EU digital affairs spokesman Thomas Regnier. &quot;This has no place in Europe.&quot; The UK&#39;s media regulator Ofcom said it had made &quot;urgent contact with X and xAI to understand what steps they have taken to comply with their legal duties to protect users in the UK.&quot; Depending on the reply, Ofcom will then &quot;determine whether there are potential compliance issues that warrant investigation.&quot; &#39;Horrifying&#39;Malaysia-based lawyer Azira Aziz expressed horror after a user, apparently in the Philippines, prompted Grok to change her &quot;profile picture to a bikini.&quot; &quot;Innocent and playful use of AI, like putting on sunglasses on public figures, is fine,&quot; Aziz told AFP. &quot;But gender-based violence weaponizing AI against non-consenting women and children must be firmly opposed,&quot; she added, calling on users to report violations to X and Malaysian authorities. Other X users directly implored Musk to take action against apparent pedophiles, &quot;asking grok to put bikinis on children.&quot; &quot;Grok is now undressing photos of me as a child,&quot; Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Musk&#39;s children, wrote on X. &quot;This is objectively horrifying, illegal.&quot; When reached by AFP for comment, xAI replied with a terse, automated response: &quot;Legacy Media Lies.&quot; Amid the online firestorm, Grok sought to assure users on Friday that it was scrambling to fix flaws in the tool. &quot;We&#39;ve identified lapses in safeguards and are urgently fixing them,&quot; Grok said on X. &quot;CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) is illegal and prohibited.&quot; Separately last week, Grok posted an apology for generating and sharing &quot;an AI image of two young girls (estimated ages 12-16) in sexualized attire based on a user&#39;s prompt.&quot; &nbsp;&#39;Grossly offensive&#39;&nbsp;The flurry of reactions came after the public prosecutor&#39;s office in Paris last week expanded an investigation into X to include new accusations that Grok was being used for generating and disseminating child pornography. The initial investigation against X was opened in July following reports that the platform&#39;s algorithm was being manipulated for foreign interference. On Friday, Indian authorities directed X to remove the sexualized content, clamp down on offending users, and submit an &quot;Action Taken Report&quot; within 72 hours, or face legal consequences, local media reported. The deadline lapsed on Monday, but so far, there was no update on whether X responded. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission also voiced &quot;serious concern&quot; at the weekend over public complaints about the &quot;indecent, grossly offensive&quot; content across X. It added that it was investigating the violations and will summon X&#39;s representatives. The criticism adds to growing scrutiny of Grok, which has faced criticism for churning out misinformation about recent crises such as the war in Gaza, the India-Pakistan conflict, and a deadly shooting in Australia.

This photograph, taken on January 13, 2025, in Toulouse shows screens displaying the logo of Grok (AFP)

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Elon Musk’s AI tool Grok faces global backlash for generating sexualized deepfakes of women and minors. The EU, UK, India, France, and Malaysia call for investigations, while xAI promises urgent fixes to safeguard users.

'Remove her clothes': Global backlash over Grok sexualized images

ATHENS: Greece&#39;s parliament on Wednesday was to approve a reform allowing workers to work 13-hour days under exceptional circumstances, drawing fire from unions and opposition parties. The new law is expected to be passed by parliament, where the ruling conservatives have 156 MPs in the 300-seat chamber. Unions have staged two general strikes against the reform this month, the latest of them on Tuesday. The government insists that the 13-hour workday is optional, only affects the private sector, and can only be applied up to 37 days a year. &quot;It requires an employee&#39;s consent,&quot; Labour Minister Niki Kerameus told Skai TV on Tuesday. The minister has said she has received and rejected collective agreement requests proposing even longer hours. The reform is seen as targeted towards Greece&#39;s services sector, especially during the busy summer tourism season, enabling employers to avoid hiring additional staff. But opposition parties and unions argue that workers will risk layoffs if they refuse longer hours. &quot;Our health, both mental and physical, and the balance between personal and professional life are goods that cannot be replaced with money,&quot; Stefanos Chatziliadis, a senior member of civil service union ADEDY, told AFP during a Tuesday protest in Thessaloniki. &quot;Making it legal to work from morning till night is not normal and cannot be tolerated by our society. It is truly barbaric. It is inhuman,&quot; he said. The legal working day in Greece is eight hours, with the possibility of performing paid overtime. According to Eurostat, Greeks work 39.8 hours a week on average compared to the EU average of 35.8 hours. &quot;This is a first step toward extending the working hours; in the private sector, you can&#39;t really refuse, they always find ways to impose what they want,&quot; said Maria, a 46-year-old construction company employee who declined to give a surname. The current government has already legalized a six-day working week, especially during high demand in certain sectors including tourism.

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Greece’s parliament is set to approve a reform allowing 13-hour workdays under exceptional circumstances, despite union strikes and opposition backlash. The government says it’s optional, but critics call it exploitative and harmful to workers’ rights.

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'Remove her clothes': Global backlash over Grok sexualized images

Greece to approve disputed 13-hour workday reform