UK probes X over Grok AI chatbot’s sexualized – Business News
The United Kingdom’s online watchdog launched a formal investigation Monday into Elon Musk’s X over sexualized footage created by its Grok chatbot – simply two days after the billionaire accused Downing Street of being “fascist.”
The UK’S Office of Communications, or Ofcom, cited “deeply concerning reports of the Grok AI chatbot account on X being used to create and share undressed images of people — which may amount to intimate image abuse or pornography — and sexualized images of children that may amount to child sexual abuse material.”
Musk’s firm has confronted renewed heat from regulators since December, when Grok started churning out creepy, scantily-clad photographs of girls and minors in response to consumer prompts. X responded by limiting the photo-editing characteristic to paid subscribers and warning that customers who request unlawful content material “will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”
Ofcom stated it already obtained a response from X on its plan to guard youngsters and different customers from hurt forward of a Friday deadline, and that the workplace would conduct an “expedited assessment of available evidence.”
Elon Musk’s X faces a formal probe within the UK. REUTERS
A proper investigation was broadly anticipated after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the nonconsensual photos produced by Grok as “disgraceful” and “unlawful” final week. Elsewhere, the UK’s Technology Secretary Liz Kendall warned that Ofcom would have her “full support” if it determined to dam entry to X in response to any wrongdoing.
Musk, in the meantime, has blasted the growing scrutiny from the UK, writing over the weekend on X that the nation’s authorities needed “any excuse for censorship.”
“Why is the UK government so fascist?” he wrote in one other X post on Saturday. He linked to a graph displaying that the UK had recorded essentially the most arrests for online feedback.
X has restricted AI image enhancing to its paid subscribers. Getty Images
The Post has reached out to X for remark.
The platform is being probed for potential violations of the UK’s Online Safety Act, which requires corporations to guard UK-based customers from dangerous content material. Ofcom can impose fines and different penalties if it decides Musk’s company has ignored its obligations.
X is dealing with a separate inquiry by the European Commission, which has reportedly requested the company to retain paperwork associated to the Grok chatbot whereas its officers study whether or not the company has violated the European Union’s strict online security guidelines.
In this photograph illustration, a screen shows examples of AI prompt-created videos, made with X’s Grok app, on January 12, 2026 in London, England. Getty Images
“It is up to this company to address this indeed appalling situation otherwise indeed, we will act,” an EC spokesperson instructed The Wall Street Journal.
A serious crackdown by British or European regulators might set up a conflict with the Trump administration, which has been sharply important of abroad efforts to impose penalties on US tech corporations.
