1 day ago
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Laura CressTechnology reporter
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall has called on Elon Musk's X to urgently deal with its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok being used to create non-consensual sexualised images of women and girls.
The BBC has seen multiple examples on X of people asking the bot to digitally undress people to make them appear in bikinis without their consent, as well as putting them in sexual situations.
Kendall said the situation was "absolutely appalling", adding "we cannot and will not allow the proliferation of these degrading images."
"It is absolutely right that Ofcom is looking into this as a matter of urgency and it has my full backing to take any enforcement action it deems necessary."
On Monday, regulator Ofcom said it had made "urgent contact" with Elon Musk's company xAI and was investigating concerns Grok has been producing "undressed images" of people.
X has not responded to any of the BBC's requests for comment, other than with an automatically-generated reply stating "legacy media lies".
But on Sunday, the platform issued a warning to users not to use Grok to generate illegal content including child sexual abuse material.
Grok is a free AI assistant - with some paid for premium features - which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to give reaction or more context to other posters' remarks.
But people on X are also able to use it to edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature - including generating what it terms "spicier" versions of the photo, without the consent of the person depicted.
Women who have stumbled across sexualised images of themselves made by Grok have described it as dehumanising.
In her statement Kendall said: "Services and operators have a clear obligation to act appropriately. This is not about restricting freedom of speech but upholding the law.
"We have made intimate image abuse and cyberflashing priority offences under the Online Safety Act - including where images are AI-generated. This means platforms must prevent such content from appearing online and act swiftly to remove it if it does."
Dr Daisy Dixon is one of the many female X users who recently started to see people take everyday pictures she had posted of herself on the platform and ask Grok to undress her or sexualise her.
She told the BBC the pictures left her feeling "shocked", "humiliated" and frightened for her safety.
She added while she backed the call from the Technology Secretary for action and found it "heartening", she still felt frustrated with X's lack of accountability.
"Myself and many other women on X continue to report the inappropriate AI images/videos we are being sent daily, but X continues to reply that there has been no violation of X rules," she said.
"I just hope Kendall's words turn into concrete enforcement soon – I don't want to open my X app any more as I'm frightened about what I might see."
