UK watchdog in ‘urgent contact’ with Musk’s X over AI-generated sexualized images of children

LONDON — U.K. communications watchdog Ofcom is looking into whether X may be in breach of the Online Safety Act following a series of reports that its AI chatbot Grok generated sexually explicit images of children.

Ofcom is also in touch with X about instances where Grok was used to generate non-consensual images of women naked.

An Ofcom spokesperson said the regulator had made “urgent contact” with X and xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company which owns X, “to understand what steps they have taken to comply with their legal duties to protect users in the U.K.”

“Based on their response we will undertake a swift assessment to determine whether there are potential compliance issues that warrant investigation,” the spokesperson said.

X’s safety team said in a statement published over the weekend that the platform “take[s] action against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary.

“Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”