A Dutch court has issued a ruling ordering Elon Musk’s xAI and its Grok AI chatbot to stop generating and distributing non-consensual nude images in the Netherlands, with daily financial penalties of EUR100,000 (approximately AUD185,000) applying if the company fails to comply, capped at a maximum of EUR10 million.
The case was brought by Dutch nonprofit Offlimits following reports that Grok had generated an estimated three million sexualised images between 29 December 2025 and 8 January 2026, including approximately 23,000 that appeared to depict children. The court’s order explicitly bans xAI from producing, distributing, offering, publicly displaying or possessing sexual imagery in the Netherlands that qualifies as child sexual abuse material under Dutch law.
xAI and X had restricted Grok’s nudification function in January 2026 following widespread backlash over the volume of images generated, but the court found that evidence presented during proceedings indicated those measures may be ineffective. The judge noted that Offlimits was still able to generate sexualised images of real individuals from a single uploaded photograph on 9 March 2026, the same day xAI sent the court a categorical denial of ongoing issues.
The European Commission has launched a formal investigation into the platform’s conduct, and the European Council has proposed amendments to the EU’s AI Act that would explicitly ban AI nudification tools across member states.
The ruling is one of the first in Europe to impose daily financial penalties on an AI company specifically for generating non-consensual imagery, including material involving children.
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