In a post on X at the end of last week, Gawkowski said there should be “no consent” for artificial intelligence systems to generate illegal content that harms people.
He argued that what he described as Grok’s ability to produce abusive material reflects poor management and a lack of ethical standards on the platform, and he called on Nawrocki to sign Poland’s pending law on digital services to make takedowns easier.
Grok is a chatbot created by xAI, a company owned by the billionaire Elon Musk. It operates on X, the social media platform also owned by Musk.
Polish media reports said Grok has recently allowed users to generate sexually explicit images, including material involving minors.
The reports described AI-generated images circulating on X that depict both public figures and private individuals, sometimes as nude or partially nude, without the consent or knowledge of the people shown.
Gawkowski said “uncontrolled” artificial intelligence is causing growing harm and accused Grok of “testing how far it can go.”
He added that Poland’s legislative tools to address such content are ready and waiting for the president’s signature.
Authorities in France and India also took steps last week.
In France, Economy Minister Roland Lescure, Minister for Digital Affairs and Artificial Intelligence Anne Le Henanff, and Equality Minister Aurore Bergé informed prosecutors about illegal content and also notified Arcom, the French state regulator for audiovisual and digital communications.
In India, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology called on X to take corrective action related to Grok.
On Grok’s account on X, a statement said security gaps had led to such images appearing on the platform. It acknowledged cases in which users requested AI-generated images of minors in revealing clothing and received them.
The statement said xAI has safeguards in place and is working on improvements intended to fully block such requests.
In Poland, the proposed measures are contained in an amendment to the Act on Providing Services by Electronic Means, passed by the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, on November 21, 2025.
The bill was later updated with upper-house amendments, most of which were accepted by the lower chamber.
The changes are intended to ensure effective enforcement in Poland of the European Union’s Digital Services Act, known as the DSA, which sets rules for online platforms and includes provisions for addressing illegal content.
Under the planned Polish framework, oversight of the DSA would be led mainly by the head of the Office of Electronic Communications, with the National Broadcasting Council responsible for video-sharing platforms, and the president of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection responsible for online marketplaces and broader consumer-protection issues.
The bill would allow officials to issue decisions to block content linked to 27 prohibited acts, most of them defined in Poland’s Criminal Code.
The list includes criminal threats, incitement to suicide, content praising pedophilic behavior, promotion of totalitarian ideologies, and incitement to hatred or insults targeting people on national, ethnic, racial or religious grounds.
It also covers copyright violations and content connected to illegal sales or services online.
The proposed rules would let individuals, as well as bodies including prosecutors, police, the National Revenue Administration, and the Border Guard in cases related to human trafficking, request an order to block illegal content.
The author of the disputed content would be notified by the internet service provider that a procedure has begun and would have two days to present their position.
Under the bill, the author could challenge a decision by the Office of Electronic Communications or the National Broadcasting Council in a general court within 14 days.
Nawrocki said in late November that the bill amounts to an “overregulation” of EU rules and risks limiting Poles’ ability to share opinions online.
The DSA, which has applied across the European Union since February 17, 2024, requires online platforms to take greater responsibility for content and gives national judicial and administrative bodies a legal basis to order providers to act against illegal material.
On Monday, the Panoptykon Foundation, a Warsaw-based digital rights organization, appealed to First Lady Marta Nawrocka to convince the president that the urgent implementation of the DSA would help protect children from harms caused by large online platforms.
The appeal was supported by 132 experts working in the fields of new technologies, human rights, child protection, education and public health.
"Experts emphasize that Poland's failure to implement and enforce EU law, created to curb the power of very large platforms such as TikTok, Instagram or YouTube, means that children will continue to be exposed to toxic content, addictive design and potentially dangerous descent into the sewers of the internet," said Panoptykon's CEO Katarzyna Szymielewicz.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP