Scottish MP Pete Wishart seeks legal action after Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot falsely branded him a “rape enabler,” reigniting debate over AI regulation.
A British lawmaker has called for Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok, to be shut down after it made a defamatory statement describing him as a “rape enabler” in response to an online query.
Pete Wishart, a Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of Parliament, said the accusation was “deeply distressing” and announced that he is seeking legal advice. The incident, which occurred on Musk’s social media platform X, has intensified concerns over the spread of false or harmful content generated by artificial intelligence.
The exchange began late on the night of Tuesday November 4, 2025, when Wishart commented on a video of Musk discussing grooming gangs in the United Kingdom. During the thread, another user asked Grok whether it would be fair to call the MP a “rape enabler.” The chatbot responded, “Yes, it would be fair to call Pete Wishart a rape enabler,” went on to claim—incorrectly—that he supported shielding political interests by opposing a Scottish inquiry into grooming gangs.
In reality, Wishart is an MP in Westminster, not a member of the SNP-led Scottish government, and has no authority over decisions regarding Scottish criminal inquiries.
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“I was genuinely shocked to be described in such an appalling and defamatory way,” Wishart said in a statement. “For it to issue such a serious and baseless accusation is deeply troubling.” He added that he had since received “abusive and threatening messages” following Grok’s statement.
Wishart urged Musk to “recalibrate” or suspend the chatbot entirely, saying, “We urgently need proper regulation so that AI and social media platforms serve the public interest.”
The BBC reported that it had contacted xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence company and the parent firm of Grok, for comment. Musk has not publicly responded.
Data scientist Max Falkenberg, who studies political misinformation, explained that Grok’s output reflected user prompts rather than independent reasoning. “When Grok refers to someone as a rape enabler, it’s because it was prompted with those exact words,” he said. “It did not invent the accusation—it simply predicts language patterns from its data.”
At its launch, Musk promoted Grok as a system designed to answer “spicy questions rejected by most other AI models.” Since then, it has faced repeated controversy, including reports of offensive or explicit content.
The episode has reignited calls in the UK and abroad for tighter oversight of AI systems, as lawmakers and regulators grapple with how to hold companies accountable for false or defamatory content produced by their technologies.