Could Grok's nudes thwart Redmond's outage updates?

Microsoft's X account @MSFT365Status has nearly 300,000 followers who look to it as a reliable source of truth for service updates, like when Microsoft's IAM service went down in October.

Microsoft encourages customers to use its 365 app and enable push notifications for status updates, or even check its cloud admin centre. But many users seem to still rely on the X account for critical updates on critical systems.

Exactly how many use it – or how many have built the feed into automation flows – is unclear. But if X and the UK government go to war over Elon Musk's Grok chatbot, we may find out.

Backing a ban

In December, X users discovered they could tag Grok – which has an explicitly NSFW "spicy mode" – to "digitally undress" people, including minors.

On Monday, Ofcom announced an investigation in Grok based on an initial finding that images generated by the chatbot "may amount to intimate image abuse" or child sexual abuse material (CSAM).