Elon Musk said critics of his social media site Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok was criticized after it emerged and was used to create sexual images of people without their knowledge or consent.
Ofcom said it was carrying out an urgent assessment of X in response, with support from Skills Minister Liz Kendall.
But the chairs of parliament’s technology and media committees both said they were concerned that “gaps” in online safety laws could hamper the media regulator’s ability to deal with the problem.
X has now restricted use of its AI imaging feature to those who pay a monthly fee, a change that Downing Street called an “insult” to victims of sexual violence.
The BBC has seen several cases of free AI tools stripping women and forcing them into sexual situations without their consent.
Ashley St Clair, the mother of one of Elon Musk’s children, told BBC Newshour that Grok created sexual photos of her as a child.
The conservative influencer said her image was “stripped down” to look “basically nude, bent over,” despite her telling Grok she disagreed with the sexual images.
St. Clair, who filed a lawsuit against Musk last year seeking sole custody of his children, accused the social media site of “not doing enough” to address illegal content, including images of child sexual abuse.
“Sending just one message to an engineer can stop this problem,” she said.
Starting Friday morning, Grok asked users to change images uploaded to
An Ofcom spokesperson said: “We contacted (X) urgently on Monday and set a deadline of today (Friday) to explain and receive a response.”
“We are currently conducting a rapid assessment based on the urgency of the situation and will provide further updates shortly.”
Ofcom’s powers under the Online Safety Act include the power to seek a court order to prevent third parties from helping X raise funds or accessing them in the UK if the company refuses to do so.
Kendall said he expected an update from Ofcom in the coming days and would have the government’s full support if it decided to block X in the UK.
But Dame Chi Onwurah, chair of the Innovation and Skills Committee, said she was “concerned and confused” about how the issue was being addressed in practice and had written to Ofcom and Kendall seeking clarification.
Dame Chi said it was “unclear” under online safety laws whether it was illegal to use AI to create such images, as well as the responsibility of social media sites for content shared on their platforms.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “This bill should make something that is harmful to so many people explicitly illegal and the responsibility of X should be clear.”
Caroline Dinenage, chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, similarly said: “It’s really scary that there are gaps in the regulations.”
“I doubt whether online safety laws actually have the power to regulate their functioning,” she told BBC Breakfast.
The use of Grok to create non-consensual sexual images has been criticized by politicians on all sides.
- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it was “disgraceful” and “disgusting”.
- British reform leader Nigel Farage said this was “appalling in every way” and that X “must go further” than the changes it made to Grok on Friday, but added that banning the platform would be an assault on freedom of expression.
- The Liberal Democrats have called for access to X to be temporarily restricted in the UK while the social media site is investigated.
