The government would “support” a ban of Elon Musk’s social media platform X should Ofcom determine it is necessary following a trend of AI sexual deepfake generation via its Grok tool.
Grok, an AI chatbot accessible via social media platform X, has been used to manipulate images of real people to create sexually explicit materials, with creations of this kind said to be in the thousands.
Secretary of State for Technology Liz Kendall has described the activities on Grok as “despicable and abhorrent” and said she “expects Ofcom to use the full legal powers” given to them by the Online Safety Act to respond.
“I would remind xAI that the Online Safety Act Includes the power to block services from being accessed in the UK, if they refuse to comply with UK law,” Kendall said.
“If Ofcom decide to use those powers they will have our full support.”
The British government has been clear in its view that the non-consensual creation of sexually explicit images of people using AI and any explicit image generation of children is illegal.
The process, commonly referred to as nudification, will be firmly banned as part of the Crime and Policing Bill, currently in parliament.
“We are in the coming weeks bringing in to force powers to criminalise the creation of intimate images without consent,” Kendall said.
“I expect all platforms to abide by Ofcom’s new VAWG guidance and if they do not, I am prepared to go further. We are as determined to ensure women and girls are safe online as we are to ensure they are safe in the real world. No excuses.”
