The Japan Times - AI chatbots to face UK safety rules after outcry over Grok

Providers of chatbots will be responsible for preventing them from generating illegal or harmful content, extending rules that currently apply only to content shared between users on social media.

It follows an international backlash against Grok for letting people create and share sexualised pictures of women and children using simple text prompts.

"The new measures announced today include crackdown on vile illegal content created by AI," Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement ahead of a speech on the matter Monday.

"The government will move fast to shut a legal loophole and force all AI chatbot providers to abide by illegal content duties in the Online Safety Act or face the consequences of breaking the law," he said.

Under the Online Safety Act, which entered force in July, platforms hosting potentially harmful content are required to implement strict age verification through tools such as facial imagery or credit card checks.

It is also illegal for sites to create or share non-consensual intimate images, or child sexual abuse material, including sexual deepfakes created with AI.

In January, Britain's media regulator Ofcom opened a probe into the social media platform X, which hosts Grok, for failing to meet its safety obligations.

The country's data watchdog has launched a wider investigation into Musk's X and xAI -- which developed the Grok AI tool -- to see whether the companies complied with personal data law when it came to Grok's generation of sexualised deepfakes.

Ofcom has noted that not all AI chatbots are regulated under the Online Safety Act, including those which "only allow people to interact with the chatbot itself and no other users".

"Technology moves on so quickly that the legislation struggles to keep up, which is why, for AI bots... we need to take the necessary measures," Starmer said.

His Labour government is ramping up efforts to protect children online, having launched a consultation on a social media ban for those under the age of 16, while considering measures to limit features like infinite scrolling on social media.

In January 2025, Starmer pledged to ease red tape to attract billions of pounds of AI investment and help Britain become an "AI superpower".

K.Tanaka--JT