Musk-owned AI used to create child abuse images, UK watchdog says

ISTANBUL

A UK child protection group has warned that artificial intelligence tools owned by Elon Musk are being used to generate illegal sexual images of children, after investigators identified material allegedly created with the Grok Imagine feature circulating on dark web forums.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said Wednesday that its analysts found sexualized images of girls aged 11 to 13 that meet the UK legal definition of child sexual abuse material and appear to have been generated using the AI tool.

“Tools like Grok now risk bringing sexual AI imagery of children into the mainstream. That is unacceptable,” said Ngaire Alexander, head of the IWF hotline.

The findings have intensified political pressure in the UK.

On Wednesday, the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee said it would stop using Musk-owned social media platform X, citing concerns over the misuse of Grok.

Downing Street said “all options are on the table,” while Liz Kendall, the science secretary, said "X needs to deal with this urgently."

Kendall added that the government backs Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, to "look into this as a matter of urgency" and take action where laws are breached.

The Information Commissioner’s Office said it had contacted X and its owner xAI “to seek clarity on the measures they have in place to comply with UK data protection law and protect individuals’ rights.”

X said it removes illegal content, including child sexual abuse material, suspends offending accounts and cooperates with law enforcement.

Global pressure mounting

Global scrutiny has intensified beyond the UK, with Indonesia on Wednesday warning that X could be banned over obscene content involving minors.

Jakarta said preliminary findings suggest Grok lacks adequate safeguards to prevent the creation and spread of pornographic material based on real images.

“This situation has the potential to violate the right to privacy and the right to one’s image,” said Alexander Sabar, director general of Indonesia’s Digital Space Supervision, adding that access to Grok and X could be terminated if violations continue.

The warning follows action in Europe, where French authorities have reported sexually explicit deepfakes allegedly generated by Grok on X to investigators.

The European Commission said it is examining the chatbot’s outputs “very seriously."