An artificial intelligence (AI) tool producing sexualised images of children will not be tolerated and is “disgusting” and “unlawful”, the prime minister has said.
Sir Keir Starmer said social media platform X has “got to get a grip of” its AI tool, Grok, and that he’s asked media regulator, Ofcom, for “all options to be on the table”.
It follows reports from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) that criminals have been using Grok to create child sexual abuse imagery.
Grok is an AI tool that X users can instruct to find out information, answer questions and create images.
The IWF revealed this week it had discovered criminal sexualised imagery of children aged between 11 and 13 that had been created by Grok.
File pic: Reuters
Speaking to Greatest Hits Radio on Thursday, the prime minister said: “This is disgraceful. It’s disgusting. And it’s not to be tolerated.
“X has got to get a grip of this. And Ofcom has our full support to take action in relation to this. This is wrong.”
X and xAI – which produces Grok – are both owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, and have been under fire for a number of days after a new feature led to users seeing AI-generated sexualised images of themselves on X.
Sir Keir added: “It’s unlawful. We’re not going to tolerate it. I’ve asked for all options to be on the table.
“It’s disgusting. And X need to get their act together and get this material down. And we will take action on this because it’s simply not tolerable.”
The application app of the AI chatbot Grok, which was developed by the company xAI and founded by Elon Musk in 2023. Pic: AP
Earlier in the day, former Labour cabinet minister Louise Haigh urged the PM and the rest of government to quit the social media platform.
She said: “I call on my party and my government to remove themselves entirely from X and communicate with the public where they actually participate online and can be protected from such illegality.”
Asked whether the government could stop using X on Wednesday, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “All options are on the table.”
They replied the same way when asked whether the prime minister was accepting images like this by continuing to use X. But the spokesperson added that Ofcom had their “full backing to take action on failings by firms”.
Ofcom has asked X to clarify how it is complying with data protection law over the AI images.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall called on X to take “urgent” action earlier this week.
Sky News has contacted X for comment.
The site’s Safety account earlier this week read: “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.
“Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”
