By Aysu Bicer

LONDON (AA) - The UK’s online safety regulator Ofcom on Monday opened a formal investigation into tech billionaire Elon Musk's social media company X over concerns that the platform's AI tool Grok is being used to create sexualized imagery.

The move follows reports that Grok, an AI chatbot integrated into X, has been used to generate and share undressed images of people and sexualised images of children.

Ofcom said such material could amount to non-consensual intimate image abuse, pornography, or child sexual abuse material, all of which are illegal in the UK.

In a statement, Ofcom said: “There have been deeply concerning reports of the Grok AI chatbot account on X being used to create and share undressed images of people – which may amount to intimate image abuse or pornography – and sexualised images of children that may amount to child sexual abuse material.”

Ofcom said it contacted X urgently on Jan. 5, setting a Jan. 9 deadline for the company to explain what steps it had taken to protect users in the UK.

The company responded by the deadline, after which the regulator carried out what it described as an “expedited assessment” of the available evidence.

Following that initial review, Ofcom decided to escalate the matter to a formal investigation.

The watchdog will examine whether X has failed to meet several key obligations under the Online Safety Act. These include whether the platform has properly assessed the risk of UK users encountering illegal content, and whether it carried out updated risk assessments before making significant changes to its service.