Government demands Musk's X deals with 'appalling' Grok AI deepfakes

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall has called on Elon Musk's X to urgently deal with its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok being used to create non-consensual sexualised images of women and girls.

The BBC has seen multiple examples on X of people asking the bot to digitally undress people to make them appear in bikinis without their consent, as well as putting them in sexual situations.

Kendall said the situation was "absolutely appalling", adding "we cannot and will not allow the proliferation of these degrading images."

In a statement, X said: "We take action against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary.

"Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content,” the statement continued.

On Monday, the regulator Ofcom said it had made "urgent contact" with Elon Musk's company xAI and said it was investigating concerns Grok has been producing "undressed images" of people.

Kendall has endorsed the regulator’s actions.

"It is absolutely right that Ofcom is looking into this as a matter of urgency and it has my full backing to take any enforcement action it deems necessary," she said.

Grok is a free AI assistant - with some paid-for premium features - which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.

It is often used to give reaction or more context to other posters' remarks.

But people on X are also able to use it to edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature without the consent of the person depicted.

Women who have stumbled across sexualised images of themselves made by Grok have described it as dehumanising.

Dr Daisy Dixon is one of the many female X users who recently started to see people take everyday pictures she had posted of herself on the platform and ask Grok to undress her or sexualise her.

She told the BBC the pictures left her feeling "shocked", "humiliated" and frightened for her safety.

She added while she backed the call from the technology secretary for action and found it "heartening", she still felt frustrated with X's lack of accountability.

"Myself and many other women on X continue to report the inappropriate AI images/videos we are being sent daily, but X continues to reply that there has been no violation of X rules," she said.

"I just hope Kendall's words turn into concrete enforcement soon – I don't want to open my X app anymore as I'm frightened about what I might see."

In her statement Kendall said: "Services and operators have a clear obligation to act appropriately. This is not about restricting freedom of speech but upholding the law.

"We have made intimate image abuse and cyberflashing priority offences under the Online Safety Act - including where images are AI-generated. This means platforms must prevent such content from appearing online and act swiftly to remove it if it does."

The leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Ed Davey urged the government to "act very quickly" to stop the generation of sexualised images by Grok, suggesting one course of action would be to "reduce access" to X.

"If the reports turn out to be true the National Crime Agency need to launch a criminal investigation," Sir Ed said.

"People like Elon Musk have to be held to account."

Speaking to BBC Newshour, Thomas Regnier, spokesman for tech sovereignty at the European Commission, said they were taking the issue "very seriously".

"We don't want this in the European Union... it's appalling, it's disgusting.

"The Wild West is over in Europe," he said.

"All companies have the obligation to put their own house in order – and this starts by being responsible and removing illegal content that is being generated by your AI tool."