LONDON, United Kingdom — Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has initiated formal investigations into both X (formerly Twitter) and xAI, companies owned by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, regarding potential violations of UK data protection laws. The regulatory action focuses on concerns surrounding Grok, an artificial intelligence chatbot capable of generating sexually explicit deepfake imagery.
The ICO expressed particular alarm about the platform’s ability to produce non-consensual intimate content featuring women and children through simple text commands. “The reported creation and circulation of such content raises serious concerns under UK data protection law and presents a risk of significant potential harm to the public,” the regulator stated in an official release.
William Malcolm, ICO’s Executive Director of Regulatory Risk, emphasized the severity of the situation: “Losing control of personal data in this way can cause immediate and significant harm. This is particularly the case where children are involved. Where we find obligations have not been met, we will take action to protect the public.”
This investigation represents the latest regulatory challenge for Musk’s technology ventures, coming alongside a separate ongoing probe by Britain’s media regulator, Ofcom. That investigation, launched last month, examines whether X complied with the Online Safety Act requirements for implementing robust age verification systems, including facial recognition and credit card validation tools for potentially harmful content.
Ofcom clarified that while investigating X’s compliance with online safety protocols, its current mandate does not extend to examining xAI’s standalone Grok service due to jurisdictional limitations in how the Online Safety Act applies to chatbot technologies.
The UK actions join growing international scrutiny, with the European Union having initiated its own probe into Grok in late January, while French authorities are separately investigating X’s algorithms regarding similar concerns about AI-generated content regulation.