Germany Prepares Legal Steps to Combat AI-Based Image Manipulation

JAKARTA - The German Ministry of Justice plans to introduce a series of measures in the near future to allow authorities to more effectively combat the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to manipulate images that violate personal rights. This was conveyed by a ministry spokesperson on Friday, February 9.

The plan comes amid scrutiny of Grok, an AI chatbot built into billionaire Elon Musk's social media platform X, which is being investigated in Europe over a feature called "spicy mode". This feature allows users to generate images with explicit sexual content.

Reuters' investigation found that the image-making feature on the chatbot was used to create images of women and children in skimpy clothing, often without the consent of the individuals depicted. This situation raises serious concerns regarding the protection of personal rights and safety in the digital space.

Germany's media minister earlier this week urged the European Commission to take legal action to stop what he called the "industrialization of sexual harassment" on the X platform.

Responding to questions about the controversy at a regular government press conference, a spokeswoman for the German Ministry of Justice, Anna-Lena Beckfeld, indicated that Germany was preparing to deal with this issue through domestic courts.

"It is unacceptable that manipulation on a large scale is used to systematically violate personal rights," said Beckfeld. "Therefore, we want to ensure that criminal law can be used more effectively to combat these practices."

Beckfeld explained that his ministry is working on stricter regulations on deepfake technology as well as preparing a draft law on digital violence to support victims.

"We want to make it easier for victims to take immediate action against violations of their rights on the internet," he told journalists.

He added that the ministry plans to present a concrete proposal in the near future, although it has not been able to reveal further details regarding the measures being prepared.

Meanwhile, after having downplayed concerns about the Grok image creation feature, the xAI company has now restricted the function to paid customers only. Elon Musk also stated last week that anyone using the chatbot to create illegal content would face the same consequences as if they uploaded illegal material directly to the platform.