Musk's X must take action over 'appalling' Grok AI deepfakes, government says

Social media site X must urgently deal with the “absolutely appalling” fake sexualised images generated on its artificial intelligence assistant Grok, according to technology secretary Liz Kendall.

It comes after increasing reports of X users asking Grok to edit photos in a sexual way, such as asking it to remove clothes or put a person in swimwear, with some of the pictures featuring children.

Kendall backed regulator Ofcom, which is looking into X and xAI, the firm founded by Elon Musk, which created Grok, to take “any enforcement action” deemed necessary.

“No one should have to go through the ordeal of seeing intimate deepfakes of themselves online,” Kendall said on Tuesday.

A post on the Grok X account said that there have been “isolated cases where users prompted for and received AI images depicting minors in minimal clothing”, and added: “xAI has safeguards, but improvements are ongoing to block such requests entirely.”

“We cannot and will not allow the proliferation of these demeaning and degrading images, which are disproportionately aimed at women and girls.”

X owner Elon Musk responded to allegations that Grok is used inappropriately on Saturday.

“Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content,” he wrote on X.

The X Safety account then posted a similar message, saying: “We take action against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary.”