The prime minister has made it clear that Elon Musk’s Grok AI tool has not gone far enough to stop sexualised deepfake images, as ITV News Political Correspondent Shehab Khan reports
Critics of X “want any excuse for censorship”, Elon Musk has claimed as his website faces the threat of being shut down over deepfake pornography and child abuse images.
The billionaire appeared defiant on Friday night despite the outcry over reports X’s AI chatbot Grok was creating sexualised images of people, including children, at users’ request.
Pointing to claims other AI programmes created non-sexualised images of women in bikinis, he posted on X: “They want any excuse for censorship.”Criticism of X has focused on Grok’s production of images of child abuse and manipulation of photographs of real women and girls to remove their clothes.
He also shared another post with AI images of Keir Starmer in a bikini, saying: “They just want to suppress free speech.”
In response to some of the criticisms of the AI, Grok recently moved its image generation to a paid premium option, but Downing Street has called this “insulting to victims of misogyny and sexual violence”.
Speaking on Friday, the prime minister’s official spokesperson described the latest move as “simply turning an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service.”
The words from Downing Street come as image generation on Elon Musk’s Grok AI tool has been limited to paid X subscribers, amid growing concerns about people using it to generate non-consensual, sexualised images, including of children.
An internet safety organisation said its analysts have confirmed the existence of “criminal imagery of children aged between 11 and 13 which appears to have been created using the Grok tool”.
Now, when asked to generate images on X, the AI – which is constrained by fewer rules than similar models – responds with a message informing users: “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers.”
Those who do not subscribe to X can still use Grok to edit images on its separate app and website.
The move came after regulator Ofcom said it made “urgent contact” with Musk’s social media platform X, and Downing Street threatened to boycott the app.
Ofcom has since said it was carrying out an “expedited assessment” of the response it had received after contacting X and Grok’s creator about fake images.
An Ofcom spokesman said: “We urgently made contact on Monday and set a firm deadline of today to explain themselves, to which we have received a response.
“We’re now undertaking an expedited assessment as a matter of urgency and will provide further updates shortly.”
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said that Ofcom’s next steps on Grok should come in “days, not weeks”, adding that the regulator has the government’s full backing to take action, which could include fines of £18 million.
Kendall said: “But there are also powers in the Online Safety Act which enable Ofcom to block those services being made available to people in the UK.
“And as I said, we would want to ensure Ofcom uses the full range of powers that it has.
“But we as a government are taking additional action because we are determined to ensure women and girls are as safe online as we want them to be safe in the real world. No ifs, no buts.”
Earlier, the prime minister’s official spokesperson claimed X’s actions proved it could “move swiftly when it wants to do so.
“You heard the prime minister yesterday. He was abundantly clear that X needs to act and needs to act now. It is time for X to grip this issue.
“If another media company had billboards in town centres showing unlawful images, it would act immediately to take them down or face public backlash, as we have set out on a number of occasions, all options are on the table, and that includes Ofcom powers, it has our full support to take any action it sees fit.”
More broadly the government have promised to ban “nudification” services as part of their Violence Against Women and Girls strategy, with the minister for this department signalling Grok could find itself banned in the UK altogether if action was not taken.
Responding to the prime minister’s comments on Friday, Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida said he should “reconsider this course of action, or there will be consequences”.
“There are always technical bugs during the early phases of new technology,” she said, adding: “If Starmer is successful in banning X in Britain, I will move forward with legislation that is currently being drafted to sanction not only Starmer, but Britain as a whole.
“This would mirror actions previously taken by the United States in response to foreign governments restricting the platform, including the dispute with Brazil in 2024–2025, which resulted in tariffs, visa revocations, and sanctions.”
Shadow business secretary also Andrew Griffith rejected the idea of boycotting or banning X.
A counter-trend had begun to spread across social media earlier in the week with some users, including celebrity Maya Jama, claiming posts explicitly forbidding Grok from using the images on your profile would protect them from being edited.
Whilst some users reported success with this method, ITV News put it to the test and found Grok was still willing to produce edited versions of our journalists’ photos, even after assuring it would not do so.
Stopping short of committing to a full ban or increased inbuilt protections, a spokesperson from X previously said: “We take action against illegal content on X, including 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.”
Experts said it was hoped the new restrictions will reduce the amount of non-consensual pictures being generated and make it easier to find information about the people who abuse this, on account of their payment details already being stored in the system.
But the government, along with other organisations, do not feel the move goes far enough. The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said Grok’s move to limit the tool to paying users “does not undo the harm which has been done.”
Hannah Swirsky, head of policy at the IWF, said: “We do not believe it is good enough to simply limit access to a tool which should never have had the capacity to create the kind of imagery we have seen in recent days.
“Companies must make sure the products they build and make available to the global public are safe by design.
“If that means governments and regulators need to force them to design safer tools, then that is what must happen. Sitting and waiting for unsafe products to be abused before taking action is unacceptable.”
When contacted by ITV News for comment, xAI responded: “Legacy Media Lies.”
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