X under pressure from UK government over ‘appalling’ Grok AI images
Elon Musk’s X social media platform has been urgently contacted by Ofcom, the UK’s online and communications regulator, over sexualised images created by its Grok AI chatbot.
Concerns have been raised in recent days over the propensity for Grok to create sexualised images of people and children at the request of users, which are shared publicly on the platform and without requiring the consent of the subject in the image.
In a statement on 5 January, Ofcom said it was aware of these concerns and had reached out to X and the xAI team over the issues.
“We are aware of serious concerns raised about a feature on Grok on X that produces undressed images of people and sexualised images of children,” Ofcom said in a statement on the platform.
“We have made urgent contact with X and xAI to understand what steps they have taken to comply with their legal duties to protect users in the UK.”
“Based on their response, we will undertake a swift assessment to determine whether there are potential compliance issues that warrant investigation.”
Following Ofcom’s acknowledgement of the concerns and its statement on X, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall has backed the regulator’s action, calling the situation “absolutely appalling”, according to a report by the BBC.
“Services and operators have a clear obligation to act appropriately. This is not about restricting freedom of speech but upholding the law,” Kendall said in a statement.
“We have made intimate image abuse and cyberflashing priority offences under the Online Safety Act – including where images are AI-generated. This means platforms must prevent such content from appearing online and act swiftly to remove it if it does.”
Musk has publicly addressed the issue of Grok being misused to allegedly generate harmful content, stating: “Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”
