The UK will make it illegal to create non-consensual intimate images with AI, following concerns about their spread on social media, particularly on Elon Musk’s X.
The Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told the Commons the sexualised images created by AI chatbot Grok are images of women “tied up and gagged, with bruises, covered in blood and much, much more” as being “weapons of abuse”.
It comes as media watchdog Ofcom has launched an investigation into whether Elon Musk’s social media platform X has breached UK law over reports that Grok was used to create and share sexualised images of children.
Currently, it is not illegal to produce sexual images of someone over the age of 18, but it is illegal to share them without consent.
Kendall said the law, which was introduced in the Data Act passed last year, would be implemented this week.
She told the Commons on Monday: “This means individuals are committing a criminal offence if they create or seek to create such content, including on X.”
But she also noted: “Responsibilities do not just lie with individuals for their own behaviour, the platforms that host such material must be held accountable, including X.”
The technology secretary said the Internet Watch Foundation “reports criminal imagery of children as young as 11, including girls sexualised and toddlers”.
Nudification apps will also be criminalised to target the problem “at its source”, she said.
Grok, developed by another company founded by Musk called xAI, launched a new advanced image generation feature in July last year.
But its use for creating nude deepfake images has become widespread over the last few weeks, prompting condemnation from the government and the Ofcom probe.
In a statement, Ofcom said it will investigate the platform to determine whether it “has complied with its duties to protect people in the UK from content that is illegal”.
It comes after the regulator made “urgent contact” with X on January 5 to ask it to explain what steps it will take to protect UK users and set a “firm deadline” of January 9, which it said X had met.
xAI has acknowledged that Grok has been used to produce inappropriate images and, in response to the criticism, moved the image generation tool behind a paywall.
This was met with ridicule by government ministers saying it did not go far enough.
Downing Street has meanwhile indicated that it is willing to consider leaving X, formerly known as Twitter, if Musk’s company did not act.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said the government’s focus was on “protecting children” but was keeping its presence on X “under review”, adding: “I think we’ve been clear that all options are on the table.”
In response to ministers’ threats, Musk has accused the UK government of being “fascist” and trying to curb free speech.
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