Spain has instructed prosecutors to open criminal inquiries into X, Meta and TikTok over allegations that their artificial intelligence tools have been used to create and circulate sexualised images of children, an action the government says aims to hold platforms accountable for harm to minors. According to The Guardian, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez framed the move as a response to an expert report examining the "generation and dissemination of sexual content and child sexual abuse through deepfakes and the manipulation of real images", and said it was necessary to protect "the mental health, dignity and rights of our sons and daughters" and to end the platforms' "impunity".

The decision follows wider concern across Europe about how AI is being used to produce exploitative material. AP reported that regulators have already launched probes into content-generating systems after examples surfaced of non-consensual, sexualised deepfakes, including alleged imagery produced by X's Grok chatbot; Irish and EU authorities are scrutinising whether the handling and dissemination of such material breaches data-protection and safety rules. Industry and policy scrutiny has intensified after critics described initial platform responses as insufficient.

Madrid's move also dovetails with a domestic push to tighten youth protections online. AP coverage of Spanish policy planning notes the government is preparing measures to bar children under 16 from accessing social media unless platforms implement robust age-verification systems, a proposal Prime Minister Sánchez announced at an international summit as part of a broader digital safety initiative for minors. The proposed restriction would be folded into existing legislation now before parliament.

While Europe confronts deepfake harms, India showcased a different strand of the AI story at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried a prototype of Sarvam AI's Kaze smartglasses. Business Standard reported that the device, described by its makers as a locally developed wearable able to listen, interpret and respond in real time and to capture visual information, was demonstrated to the prime minister and is slated for a market debut in May 2026. Sarvam AI has been public about plans to extend from models into hardware and highlighted its ambition to produce homegrown AI devices.

The events underlined the divergent policy and commercial challenges that accompany rapid advances in generative AI: European regulators are intensifying enforcement to curb harms and enforce transparency, while private firms and startups in other jurisdictions are racing to translate model capabilities into new consumer products. Observers say the twin pressures of legal oversight and market competition will shape how quickly novel AI-driven services reach users and how tightly they are governed.

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Source: Noah Wire Services