The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has launched a probe into Elon Musk’s xAI, after its Grok chatbot produced sexual images of real people, without their consent.
ICO sent xAI a “please explain” note in early January. The regulator hasn’t yet said how, or if, Elon Musk’s AI outfit responded. But on Tuesday the regulator escalated by opening a formal investigation.
“Our investigation will assess whether XIUC and X.AI have complied with data protection law in the development and deployment of the Grok services, including the safeguards in place to protect people’s data rights,” said ICO executive director for regulatory risk and innovation William Malcolm, in a canned statement. “Where we find obligations have not been met, we will take action to protect the public.”
Also on Tuesday, UK communications regulator Offcom announced “We continue to demand answers from xAI about the risks it poses,” but is still “examining whether to launch an investigation into its compliance with the rules requiring services that publish pornographic material to use highly effective age checks to prevent children from accessing that content.”
Spain spat
While the UK’s regulators wrung their hands, Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez took to the stage of the World Governments Summit annual meeting and delivered a speech [PDF] in which he described social media as “a failed state” and “a place where laws are ignored and crime is endured. Where disinformation is worth more than truth, and half of users suffer hate speech. A failed state in which algorithms distort the public conversation and our data and images are defied and sold.”
He cited Grok’s ability to create sexualized images as another example of social networks failing, and called out Elon Musk for amplifying disinformation about a recent Spanish government decision to create a pathway to obtain residency permits for over 500,000 undocumented migrants.
Sánchez said his government will respond with a ban on children under 16 using social media, laws that make social media executives responsible for illegal acts on the platforms they manage, and criminalize algorithmic manipulation and amplification of illegal content.
The PM said hateful content online is “invisible and untraceable” and pledged to create a tool to expose its sources and use it to inform investigations conducted by Spain’s public prosecutor. Sánchez named Grok, TikTok and Instagram as the targets of those investigations.
Musk later used his X account to describe Sánchez as “a tyrant and a traitor” and a “fascist totalitarian.”
And he wonders why governments in France, Australia, the EU, Canada, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia have a problem with his platform. ®
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