Elon Musk has finally addressed the major backlash after his X AI chatbot Grok was found to be generating explicit images of women and minors.
Musk’s response comes after media watchdog Ofcom launched an investigation into whether the platform had breached UK law over reports that Grok was used to create and share the sexualised images.
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’.
“There have been deeply concerning reports of the Grok AI chatbot account on X being used to create and share undressed images of people – which may amount to intimate image abuse or pornography – and sexualised images of children that may amount to child sexual abuse material,” they continued.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the watchdog would have ministers’ full support to take action against X, including effectively banning the platform in the UK, if the company did not make changes.
X owner Elon Musk has addressed the Grok deepfake images controversy (Photo illustration by Cheng Xin/Getty Images)
In response to ministers’ threats to ban X, Musk accused the UK Government of trying to curb free speech, writing on his X account: “They just want to suppress free speech.”
And replying to a post about why other AI platforms weren’t also being investigated, he claimed that the UK government wanted ‘any excuse for censorship’.
Musk had previously addressed the consequences for those using the chatbot to ‘make illegal content’, saying: “Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”
The multi-billionaire Tesla CEO, who is the richest man in the world with a net worth of $724.5 billion, is now taking action to comply with UK law.
On Wednesday (14 January), he said he was not aware of ‘any naked underage images generated by Grok’ and claimed the chatbot would ‘refuse to produce anything illegal’ as its ‘operating principle’ is to ‘obey the laws of any given country or state’.
He added: “There may be times when adversarial hacking of Grok prompts does something unexpected. If that happens, we fix the bug immediately.”
X’s terms of service prohibit users from creating or sharing content that ‘sexualises or exploits’ children.
Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the Government would not ‘back down’, adding that Ofcom’s independent investigation into Grok’s deepfake images would continue.
Musk then claimed that his chatbot would refuse to produce illegal content and appeared to blame ‘adversarial hacking’ for Grok’s generation of sexualised images.
Responding to a question from Labour MP Emily Darlington, Starmer repeated his condemnation of Grok as ‘disgusting’ and ‘shameful’, and said Ofcom had ministers’ full backing to act if X did not.
“To update the House, I have been informed this morning that X is acting to ensure full compliance with UK law,” the politician said. “If so, that is welcome, but we’re not going to back down, and they must act.
“We will take the necessary measures. We will strengthen existing laws and prepare for legislation if it needs to go further, and Ofcom will continue its independent investigation.”
Legislation making it a criminal offence to create or request the creation of non-consensual intimate images would come into force this week following the Grok outcry.
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