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Ofcom has made “urgent contact” with Elon Musk’s company xAI following reports its AI tool Grok can be used to make “sexualised images of children” and undress women.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the regulator said it was also investigating concerns Grok has been producing “undressed images” of people.<\/p>\n
The BBC has seen several examples<\/a> on the social media platform X of people asking the chatbot to alter real images to make women appear in bikinis without their consent, as well as putting them in sexual situations.<\/p>\n X has not responded to a request for comment. On Sunday, it issued a warning to users<\/a> not to use Grok to generate illegal content including child sexual abuse material.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Elon Musk also posted to say<\/a> anyone who asks the AI to generate illegal content would “suffer the same consequences” as if they uploaded it themselves.<\/p>\n XAI’s own acceptable use policy prohibits “depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner”.<\/p>\n But people have been using Grok to digitally undress people without their consent and without notifying them.<\/p>\n The European Commission – the EU’s enforcement arm – said on Monday it was “seriously looking into this matter” and authorities in France, Malaysia and India were reportedly assessing the situation.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the UK’s Internet Watch Foundation told the BBC it had received reports from the public relating to images generated by Grok on X.<\/p>\n But it said it had so far not seen images which would cross the UK’s legal threshold to be considered child sexual abuse imagery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Grok is a free virtual assistant – with some paid for premium features – which responds to X users’ prompts when they tag it in a post.<\/p>\n Samantha Smith, a journalist who discovered users had used the AI to create pictures of her in a bikini, told the BBC’s PM programme on Friday it had left her feeling “dehumanised and reduced into a sexual stereotype”.<\/p>\n “While it wasn’t me that was in states of undress, it looked like me and it felt like me and it felt as violating as if someone had actually posted a nude or a bikini picture of me,” she said.<\/p>\n Under the Online Safety Act<\/a>, Ofcom says it is illegal to create or share intimate or sexually explicit images – including “deepfakes” created with AI – of a person without their consent.<\/p>\n Tech firms are also expected to take “appropriate steps” to reduce the risks of UK users encountering such content, and take it down “quickly” when made aware of it.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said on Monday it was aware of posts made by Grok “showing explicit sexual content”, as well as “some output generated with childlike images”.<\/p>\n “This is illegal,” he said, also calling it “appalling” and “disgusting”.<\/p>\n “This is how we see it, and this has no place in Europe,” he said.<\/p>\n Regnier said X was “well aware” the EU was “very serious” about enforcing its rules for digital platforms – having handed X a \u20ac120m (\u00a3104m) fine<\/a> in December for breaching its Digital Services Act.<\/p>\n A Home Office spokesperson said it was legislating to ban nudification tools, and under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tech would “face a prison sentence and substantial fines”.<\/p>\n Additional reporting by Chris Vallance<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n