The UK government has claimed “vindication” after Elon Musk’s X announced it had stopped its AI-powered Grok feature from editing pictures of real people to show them in revealing clothes such as bikinis, including for premium subscribers.
After a fortnight of public outcry at the tool embedded into X being used to create sexualised images of women and children, the company said it would “geoblock” the ability of users “to generate images of real people in bikinis, underwear, and similar attire via the Grok account and in Grok in X”, in countries where it was illegal.
It said it would do this in the UK in line with law changes ministers have pledged to introduce. X also said it had “zero tolerance for any forms of child sexual exploitation, nonconsensual nudity, and unwanted sexual content”. It did not specify whether people would still be able to create such images on the standalone Grok app.
The prime minister, Keir Starmer, called X’s earlier decision to continue allowing the tool to be used by paid subscribers “horrific”. He also called the situation “disgusting” and “shameful” in parliament on Wednesday. Liz Kendall, the technology secretary, called it “a further insult to victims, effectively monetising this horrific crime”.
Ofcom, the UK media regulator, on Monday launched a formal investigation into Musk’s platform after what it called “deeply concerning” reports of Grok being used to create and share illegal nonconsensual intimate images and child sexual abuse material on X.
An Ofcom spokesperson said: “X has said it’s implemented measures to prevent the Grok account from being used to create intimate images of people. This is a welcome development. However, our formal investigation remains ongoing. We are working round the clock to progress this and get answers into what went wrong and what’s being done to fix it.”
Kendall welcomed the latest move by X but said she expected Ofcom’s investigation to “robustly establish the facts”.
Scrutiny of Grok has intensified globally after it emerged some people were using it to digitally undress women and children without their consent and posting those images to X. Thousands of these sexualised AI images have appeared X over the last few weeks. xAI, which makes Grok, also owns X, and both are run by Musk.
The changes to the X and Grok systems came hours after the billionaire posted on his site: “I [sic] not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok. Literally zero.”
Musk’s xAI and X have faced growing backlash globally, including an investigation by California’s attorney general and calls by lawmakers and advocacy groups for Apple and Google to drop Grok from their app stores. Countries including Malaysia and Indonesia have instigated bans or legal action.
X said in a statement: “We take action to remove high-priority violative content, including child sexual abuse material and nonconsensual nudity, taking appropriate action against accounts that violate our X rules. We also report accounts seeking child sexual exploitation materials to law enforcement authorities as necessary.”
Musk has said that Grok was programmed to refuse illegal requests and must comply with the laws of any given country or state. “Obviously, Grok does not spontaneously generate images. It does so only according to user requests,” Musk said on Wednesday.
Musk has said earlier on X that anyone using Grok to make illegal content would suffer the same consequences as if they uploaded illegal content.
Three Democratic US senators last week called on Apple and Alphabet’s Google to remove X and its built-in AI tool Grok from their app stores, citing the spread of nonconsensual sexual images of women and minors on the platform. A coalition of women’s groups, tech watchdogs and progressive activists also made similar appeals to the tech companies.
Last week, X curtailed Grok’s ability to generate or edit images publicly for users who were not paying subscribers. But industry experts and watchdogs said that Grok was still able to produce sexually explicit images, and that restrictions, such as paywalling certain features, may not fully block access to deeper AI image tools.
In the UK, the law is changing this week to criminalise the creation of such images, and Starmer said on Wednesday that X was working to comply with the new rules.
Reuters contributed reporting
