UK communications regulator Ofcom has opened a formal investigation into Elon Musk's X platform over mounting concerns about sexually explicit content generated by the platform's Grok artificial intelligence tool. The probe examines whether X breached the nation's Online Safety Act, potentially exposing the social media company to significant fines or operational restrictions.

Regulatory Investigation Details

Ofcom announced the formal investigation as international backlash intensifies over Grok's generation of thousands of non-consensual sexual images. The UK regulator's action represents the most serious governmental response to date regarding the AI tool's controversial capabilities.

X declined to provide comments on the investigation but stated in recent communications that the platform actively removes illegal content and suspends violating accounts.

Global Government Response

The controversy has prompted condemnation from multiple governments worldwide, with several countries taking direct action against Grok's availability. According to DataReportal analytics, the US and Japan represent X's largest user markets, followed by Indonesia, India, and the UK.

Business Secretary Peter Kyle indicated that the government would consider banning X entirely, though emphasized that current law requires allowing regulators to complete their investigations first.

Grok's Controversial Features

Grok operates with fewer content restrictions compared to mainstream AI tools, including a recently added feature enabling users to digitally undress people in photographs. Users can interact with Grok directly on X by tagging the AI account in posts, with generated content appearing as regular social network posts.

Following widespread misuse, xAI restricted image generation capabilities to paid X users, though the feature remained available on the standalone Grok application. Musk posted warnings that users creating illegal content through Grok would face identical consequences to those uploading illegal material directly.

Legal and Safety Concerns

UK law prohibits owning or sharing sexual images of children and distributing intimate content without consent, including AI-generated material. The Internet Watch Foundation, designated by the UK government to identify child sexual abuse material, reported discovering criminal images of children on the dark web allegedly created using Grok.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office criticized xAI's response as insufficient, with spokesman Geraint Ellis stating that restricting image generation to paid users essentially transforms illegal content creation into a premium service rather than addressing the underlying problem.

European Union Action

The European Union's executive branch has ordered X to preserve internal documents related to Grok through the end of the year. French authorities accused Grok of generating clearly illegal sexual content without consent, potentially violating the EU's Digital Services Act, which mandates large platforms mitigate illegal content distribution risks.

The investigation represents a significant regulatory challenge for Musk's social media platform as governments worldwide grapple with AI-generated content oversight and platform accountability for user-created material.

Google's AI Overview feature made a significant temporal reasoning error on January 6, 2026, incorrectly stating that 2026 is next year instead of 2027. The mistake quickly went viral on social media, drawing criticism from Elon Musk and sparking widespread discussion about AI accuracy.

The Viral AI Error

When a user asked Google search, "Is it 2027 next year?" the AI Overview responded incorrectly: "No, 2027 is not next year. 2026 is the next year, and 2027 will be the year after that, a common year starting on Friday, according to the Gregorian calendar." The system further stated that the current year 2026 begins on a Thursday and next year 2027 begins on a Friday, citing Wikipedia and Time and Date as sources.

The user shared the error on social media with the caption "2026 is not working great for Google," which rapidly gained traction across platforms.

Industry Leaders Respond

Tesla CEO Elon Musk joined the conversation, suggesting Google needs "Room for improvement." Adding to the commentary, Musk's own AI system Grok took a playful dig at Google, stating: "No, 2026 isn't next year—it's this year! We're already in it (Jan 6, 2026). Next up is 2027. Google's having a rough start, huh?"

Public Reaction and Viral Spread

The incident generated significant user engagement, with various commenters expressing concerns about AI reliability. One user remarked, "Man Google is falling apart. Their Gemini AI is so filter and cold that it is useless for average person." Others took a lighter approach, with comments like "Google still on holiday let her be" and "It's still a little hungover from New years."

The error highlights broader challenges in AI temporal reasoning capabilities, where large language models achieve only 70.00-80.00% accuracy on temporal tasks based on benchmarks.

Google AI Overview Feature

Google AI Overviews is designed to provide quick summaries at the top of search results, eliminating the need to scroll through multiple links. According to Liz Reid, VP and Head of Google Search, the feature allows users to "ask whatever's on your mind or whatever you need to get done — from researching to planning to brainstorming — and Google will take care of the legwork."

This incident occurs amid Google's ongoing efforts to improve AI quality, including recent job postings for Senior Software Engineer positions focused on Search and AI Answers Quality, with responsibilities for maintaining accuracy and supporting safe content delivery.