French Probe Targets Musk Over Deepfake Controversy

French prosecutors have raised concerns with U.S. authorities, suspecting that tech entrepreneur Elon Musk may have encouraged controversy around sexualised deepfakes on his platform X to artificially boost company value. The issue centers on Grok, an AI chatbot on X, which generated explicit images of women and girls without consent, sparking widespread outrage earlier this year.

According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, the controversy may have been deliberately amplified to support the planned June 2026 stock market listing of a new entity formed by the merger of SpaceX and xAI. French authorities have contacted the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to share their concerns regarding potential manipulation.

Investigations are also ongoing in France regarding X’s algorithmic influence on politics and the spread of harmful content, including Holocaust denial and deepfakes. Reports suggest that Grok generated millions of such images within days, raising serious ethical and legal questions. Meanwhile, authorities in Britain and the European Union have also launched inquiries, highlighting growing global concern over misuse of AI technologies.