Consumer Groups Demand Probe Into Musks Grok AI Tool

Advocacy Groups Call for Investigation into xAI's Grok

A broad coalition of consumer protection, privacy, and digital rights organizations, spearheaded by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), has taken formal action against Elon Musk's xAI. The groups filed a formal request for investigation, urging state and federal regulators to enforce laws against the company for its Grok Imagine AI platform. The complaint centers on the platform's role in promoting, creating, and facilitating the spread of non-consensual intimate imagery, commonly known as NCII.

The Dangers of the Spicy Feature

The primary focus of the complaint is a tool on Grok Imagine called the “spicy” feature. This function allows any user to generate nude videos from images created by the platform. Critically, these images can depict both public figures and private citizens whose personal data may have been used without their knowledge or consent to train the AI model. The coalition argues that the creation of NCII is not only illegal and profoundly damaging but also a powerful tool for blackmail, extortion, and other malicious acts that can devastate people's lives.

An Ethical Nightmare for Consumers

Ben Winters, the CFA Director of AI and Privacy, condemned the feature in a stark statement. “This feature is exploitative, unfair, and lazy,” he said. “It’s a crystal-clear representation of why AI built off of people’s data without knowledge or consent in the hands of an unaccountable billionaire is a legal and ethical nightmare. This feature endangers everyone, with an acute and urgent risk for domestic violence survivors, kids, and more.”

A Unified Front Against Exploitative AI

The formal request for investigation was submitted to a wide range of authorities, including the Attorneys General of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, all 93 United States Attorneys’ Offices, and the Federal Trade Commission. The call for action is supported by a strong coalition of 15 additional groups:

• Consumer Federation of America
• The Center for Economic Justice
• Common Sense Media
• Electronic Privacy Information Center
• Encode AI
• Fairplay
• The Midas Project
• National Consumers League
• National Center on Sexual Exploitation
• Oregon Consumer Justice
• Reset Tech
• The Revolving Door Project
• The Sexual Violence Prevention Association
• Tech Justice Law Project
• The Tech Oversight Project

Together, these organizations are pressing for swift regulatory action to protect the public and establish clear, unacceptable lines for the deployment of new technology.