UK, Canadian watchdogs press on with probes into Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot

WASHINGTON/LONDON, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Britain and Canada have both said they are pushing forward with probes into xAI’s Grok chatbot, signaling official scrutiny of the program will persist even as xAI says it is making changes to tamp down on the production of explicit imagery which has outraged officials around the world.

xAI, the artificial intelligence company owned by Elon Musk, said late on Wednesday it had implemented tweaks to prevent the Grok account “from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis.” xAI also said it had blocked users, based on their location, from generating images of people in revealing clothing in “jurisdictions where it’s illegal.” It did not identify those jurisdictions.

Reuters could not establish to what degree, if at all, the change has prevented xAI from creating nonconsensual images. Several Reuters reporters, including a reporter in Britain, were still able to use Grok to create on-demand sexualized photos as of midday on Thursday U.S. Eastern Time.

Social media platform X and xAI did not immediately address questions from Reuters about the company’s changes or the developments in Britain and Canada.

Britain’s media regulator Ofcom said on Thursday that while xAI’s announcement was “a welcome development,” its investigation remained ongoing. “We are working round the clock to progress this and get answers into what went wrong and what’s being done to fix it.”

In a separate development, Canada’s privacy watchdog said on Thursday it was expanding an existing probe into X, as well as a related investigation into xAI.

Britain and Canada are two in a growing list of countries cracking down on explicit content generated by Grok, imposing bans or demanding safeguards in a global push to curb the sexualized and degrading images of women that appeared across the X platform over the new year. California joined the critics on Wednesday, when its governor and attorney general demanded answers from xAI.

GOVERNMENT TOUTS ONLINE SAFETY ACT SUCCESS

Even as Grok continued to generate scantily clad photos of strangers on demand, Britain’s Technology Secretary Liz Kendall claimed xAI’s announcement as a victory in the government’s fight to rein in the powers of big tech.

“Our Online Safety Act is and always has been about keeping people safe on social media – especially children – and it has given us the tools to hold X to account in recent days,” she said.

Kendall, who said earlier this week the Ofcom probe into X must not take months and months, added on Thursday she would not rest until all social media platforms provided a service that is safe and age-appropriate to users.

Separately Ofcom said on Thursday that Snapchat had “materially improved” its illegal content risk assessment, helping to protect the UK public.

xAI is facing regulatory scrutiny elsewhere in the world, from France to India.

On Thursday, the Philippines said it was moving to block Grok amid concerns about its ability to generate sexualized images, including content that could pose child safety risks.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle and Muvija M in London and Raphael Satter in Washington; Editing by Kate Holton, Louise Heavens and Chris Reese)