The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has opened formal investigations into X and xAI over whether Elon Musk’s companies have complied with data protection law after the Grok AI tool was used to generate sexual deepfake images without consent.

The ICO said the reports raised “serious concerns” under UK data protection laws, such as whether “appropriate safeguards were built into Grok’s design and deployment”.

William Malcolm, executive director regulatory risk & innovation at the ICO, said: “The reports about Grok raise deeply troubling questions about how people’s personal data has been used to generate intimate or sexualised images without their knowledge or consent, and whether the necessary safeguards were put in place to prevent this.

“Losing control of personal data in this way can cause immediate and significant harm. This is particularly the case where children are involved.”

In a separate statement, the regulator Ofcom said it was not investigating xAI, which provides the standalone Grok app.

Ofcom also said its investigation into X, a social network formerly known as Twitter on which users can interact with Grok, was still gathering evidence and warned that the inquiry could take months.

The company has taken steps to address the issue and must be given a “full opportunity to make representations”, Ofcom added.

On why it was not investigating xAI, the statement said: “When we opened our investigation into X, we said we were assessing whether we should also investigate xAI, as the provider of the standalone Grok service.

“We continue to demand answers from xAI about the risks it poses. We are 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.

“Because of the way the act relates to chatbots, as explained above, we are currently unable to investigate the creation of illegal images by the standalone Grok service in this case.”

More details soon …