UK regulator launches probe into Elon Musk’s X over Grok deepfake photos

Ofcom has today launched a formal investigation into Elon Musk’s X over sexualised deepfake images produced by AI tool Grok.

The UK media watchdog said it will establish whether the social media platform has failed to comply with its legal obligation under the Online Safety Act.

The regulator said today: “There have been 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 sexualised images of children that may amount to child sexual abuse material.

“As the UK’s independent online safety watchdog, we urgently made contact with X on Monday 5 January and set a firm deadline of Friday 9 January for it to explain what steps it has taken to comply with its duties to protect its users in the UK.

“The company responded by the deadline, and we carried out an expedited assessment of available evidence as a matter of urgency.”

It comes as Tech Secretary Liz Kendall is expected to give a statement later today amid mounting alarm over sickening deepfakes on Mr Musk’s X platform.

There has been widespread condemnation over sexualised images generated by the AI bot Grok of predominantly women but also children without their consent.

Business Secretary Peter Kyle signalled that the UK would take action. He defended the UK’s Online Safety Act but conceded there was “more work to do” to protect people online, “particularly in places like X”.

“Let me be really clear about X – X is not doing enough to keep its customers safe online,” he told Sky News.

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said US vice president JD Vance was sympathetic to efforts to tackle the Grok-produced images, although Donald Trump’s free speech tsar later likened the UK’s threats to Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Mr Lammy, who met Mr Vance in the US on Thursday, told The Guardian he raised the issue of Grok “and the horrendous, horrific situation in which this new technology is allowing deepfakes and the manipulation of images of women and children, which is just absolutely abhorrent”. “He agreed with me that it was entirely unacceptable,” Mr Lammy said.

Sarah Rogers, under-secretary for public diplomacy at the US state department, later said the UK was “contemplating a Russia-style X ban, to protect them from bikini images”.