LONDON, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Britain's data protection and online safety regulators have launched parallel investigations into the Grok AI system, highlighting how established legal tools are being deployed against AI-generated harms on Elon Musk's social media platform X.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), Britain's data protection regulator, announced on Tuesday that it has opened formal investigations into X Internet Unlimited Company (XIUC) and X.AI LLC (X.AI) over their processing of personal data linked to the Grok system and its capacity to generate harmful sexualized images and videos.
At the same time, online safety regulator Ofcom continues its separate probe into the X platform under online safety rules.
The investigations apply distinct legal frameworks - data protection law and the Online Safety Act - to examine different stages of the emergence and spread of such harmful content.
Ofcom launched its formal investigation into X last month under the Online Safety Act following reports that the platform was being used to create and share sexualized images of women and children that may constitute intimate image abuse or child sexual abuse material.
In Tuesday's update, Ofcom said it was pressing ahead with the probe as "a matter of urgency" while confirming it is not currently investigating X.AI, but noted it continues to demand answers about Grok's risks and is assessing potential age verification violations.
Ofcom said that because of the way the Online Safety Act relates to chatbots, it was currently unable to investigate the creation of illegal images by the standalone Grok itself.
Ofcom's focus remains on whether X has met its obligations to assess risks, limit users' exposure to illegal content and remove such material from its service.
The ICO's separate investigation specifically addresses data protection concerns, focusing on how XIUC and X.AI processed personal data in relation to the Grok system and whether appropriate safeguards were built into the AI to prevent the generation of harmful sexualized images and videos.
Taken together, the parallel investigations show how Britain is applying its data protection and online safety regimes in tandem, with the ICO focusing on how Grok was developed and Ofcom on how X handled the resulting content.
In its statement, the ICO said it had taken this step after reports that Grok had been used to generate non-consensual sexual imagery of individuals, including children, and said the creation and circulation of such content raised serious concerns under British data protection law and posed a risk of significant harm to the public.
The watchdog said its investigation will assess whether XIUC and X.AI have complied with data protection law in the development and deployment of Grok services, including the safeguards in place to protect people's data rights.
William Malcolm, Executive Director of Regulatory Risk and Innovation at the ICO, added that the ICO is working closely with Ofcom and international regulators to ensure coordinated action.
Under the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, the ICO can issue fines of up to 17.5 million pounds (about 24 million U.S. dollars) or 4 percent of an organization's annual worldwide turnover, whichever is higher.
"Where we find obligations have not been met, we will take action to protect the public," said Malcolm.
The ICO's latest announcement coincided with a search of X's offices in Paris by French prosecutors, who are examining similar allegations involving AI-generated sexual imagery.
Separately, in January, the European Commission opened a new formal investigation into X under the Digital Services Act (DSA), and broadened an ongoing probe to scrutinize the platform's compliance with EU rules governing recommender-system risk management. ■