Paris: France's AI and digital ambassador Clara Chappaz has expressed strong disapproval over the decision to make public image generation a paid feature of the Grok chatbot on Elon Musk's social media platform, X, describing it as a "scam". This adds to the growing criticism surrounding Musk's handling of deepfake sexual abuse on the platform.

According to France24.com, following the suspension of access to Grok by Malaysia and Indonesia, Chappaz, a French foreign ministry official, refrained from confirming whether France would take similar action. However, she mentioned that an international response is being considered and hopes for swift judicial action against what she termed a "totally illegal" use of AI. She emphasized that victims in France should pursue legal action, noting that generating non-consensual sexual deepfakes in France is punishable by up to three years in prison and fines of €75,000.

The Telegraph reported that Australia, the UK, and Canada are contemplating joint measures, although Canada's AI minister, Evan Solomon, stated on X that the country will not ban the platform.

Since the beginning of the year, X has seen an influx of sexually abusive, violent, and extremist content generated by the Grok chatbot, with users notably requesting the alteration of women's pictures to remove clothing. In response to widespread criticism, X has restricted the image generation feature to a paid service for public-facing interactions, though it remains free in a private section of the website. This move has reportedly led to a decrease in illicit posts from tens of thousands per day at its peak in January.

Chappaz described the modification as "completely hypocritical," arguing, "I see it as a scam because what it means is people pay to get access to the functionality, and guess who benefits from it? X, who's getting more income as a result."