Ofcom investigates X over Grok deepfakes

The media regulator Ofcom has launched an investigation into the social media platform X, over concerns that its Grok artificial intelligence tool is being used to create sexualised images of people without their consent.

The investigation was announced on 12 January, after a surge in the use of Grok to digitally undress women and girls in photographs shared on the platform.

What has been happening?

Grok is a chatbot built into X, which is owned by Elon Musk. Since the end of last year, users have been posting photographs of women and asking Grok to edit them to show the women in bikinis, underwear or sexually suggestive poses. The chatbot has often posted the altered images publicly in reply.

Most of the images have targeted women and girls, and some have involved children. Campaigners say the images are a form of sexual abuse and can cause serious harm to the people shown in them.

The government acts

The Technology Secretary, Liz Kendall, has demanded that X deal with the problem. She has announced that the government will bring into force legislation making it illegal to create non-consensual intimate images, using powers in the Data (Use and Access) Act passed last year.

Under the Online Safety Act, platforms have a legal duty to protect users from illegal content, and Ofcom can fine companies up to 10 per cent of their global turnover if they fail to do so.

X responds

xAI, the company behind Grok, has restricted image generation to paying users. Critics say that does not go far enough, and that the tool should not be able to create such images at all.

Around the world

Governments in other countries have also taken action. Indonesia and Malaysia have blocked access to Grok, and regulators in Europe and elsewhere are looking at the issue.

A wider problem

So-called nudify apps, which use artificial intelligence to create fake nude images from ordinary photographs, have spread rapidly in recent years. Experts say the ease with which such images can now be made has created a new form of online abuse.

Campaigners have long called for tougher action against companies whose tools are used to create abusive images.

Ofcom says it will look into whether X has met its legal duties, and will act if it finds that it has not.