Elon Musk has hit back at Sir Keir Starmer, saying Labour is looking for 'any excuse for censorship' as his social media site X faces the threat of being shut down over deepfake pornography and child abuse images.
Billionaire Musk made a defiant response against the Prime Minister, who said he was leaving 'all options' on the table in response to the widespread fury over X, reposting an image of Sir Keir in a bikini with the caption 'they just want to suppress free speech'.
There has been an outcry over Grok, which is available on X, after it was found to have been used to produce naked images of people, including children, as regulator Ofcom looks into X and xAI, the firm which created the Grok AI tool.
Sir Keir dismissed Musk's changes to his AI tool as 'insulting' to victims, with the tool limiting its image generation and editing features to only paying subscribers of the site.
This means users' names and payment details must be on file. But Downing Street on Friday said this was 'not a solution' and warned it had merely turned the generation of deefakes into a 'premium service'.
The PM's spokesman said: 'That move... that simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service.
'It's not a solution. In fact, it's insulting the victims of misogyny and sexual violence. What it does prove is that X can move swiftly when it wants to do so.'
The PM's spokesman added: '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.'
Billionaire Elon Musk made a defiant response against the Prime Minister, who said he was leaving 'all options' on the table in response to the widespread fury over X, reposting an image of Sir Keir in a bikini with the caption 'they just want to suppress free speech'
Sir Keir on Thursday called on X to 'get their act together' amid concerns about the AI creation of sexualised images of adults and children on the site
Elon Musk has hit back at Sir Keir Starmer, saying Labour is looking for 'any excuse for censorship' as his social media site X faces the threat of being shut down over deepfake pornography and child abuse images
'If another media company had billboards in town centres showing unlawful images, it would act immediately to take them down or face public backlash.'
Sir Keir on Thursday called on X to 'get their act together' amid concerns about the AI creation of sexualised images of adults and children on the site.
'This is disgraceful. It's disgusting. And it's not to be tolerated,' the PM told Greatest Hits Radio.
'X has got to get a grip of this. Ofcom has our full support to take action in relation to this. This is wrong.
'It's unlawful. We're not going to tolerate it. I've asked for all options to be on the table.
'It's disgusting. X need to get their act together and get this material down. We will take action on this because it's simply not tolerable.'
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said she would back regulator Ofcom if it decided to effectively block X if it failed to comply with UK laws, saying: 'Sexually manipulating images of women and children is despicable and abhorrent.'
Ofcom said it was undertaking an 'expedited assessment' after X and responded to an urgent contact on Monday.
Downing Street reiterated the Prime Minister was leaving 'all options' on the table as regulator Ofcom looks into X and xAI, the firm which created the Grok AI tool.
Ofcom 'urgently contacted' X and xAI over the sexualised images of children, which Grok admitted to in a post on the social media platform.
But Mr Musk responded by sharing a post from US legislator Anna Paulina Luna threatening to sanction both Sir Keir Starmer and the UK if X was blocked in the country.
On Friday, X appeared to have changed Grok's settings, with the chatbot telling users that only paid subscribers could ask it to manipulate images.
However, reports suggested this only applied to those making requests in reply to other posts, and other ways of editing or creating images, including on a separate Grok website, remained open.
Ms Kendall said it was 'totally unacceptable for Grok to allow this if you're willing to pay for it' and added she expected an update on Ofcom's next steps 'in days, not weeks'.
Ofcom has powers under the Online Safety Act to fine businesses up to £18 million or 10% of global revenue, as well as to take criminal action.
It can also order payment providers, advertisers and internet service providers to stop working with a site, effectively banning them, though this would require agreement from the courts.
Ms Kendall also pointed to plans to ban nudification apps as part of the Crime and Policing Bill going through Parliament and said powers to criminalise the creation of intimate images without consent would come into force in the coming weeks.
Celebrities have also hit out at the AI took, as Maya Jama ordered Grok not to edit her pictures after her mother received fake nudes created from the presenter's bikini snaps.
She branded the internet 'scary and getting worse' as she revealed her mother had previously sent her some of her bikini pictures from Instagram which had been photoshopped into nudes.
Maya Jama ordered Grok not to edit her pictures after her mother received fake nudes created from her bikini snaps.
The Love Island presenter has joined X users in calling out sexualised images of real people.
In a second post under her withdrawal of consent, she said: ‘Lol worth a try’.
Maya later added: ‘If this doesn’t work then I hope people have some sense to know when something is ai or not’.
Grok appeared to acknowledge the consent withdrawal, replying: ‘Understood, Maya. I respect your wishes and won’t use, modify, or edit any of your photos’.
‘Hey @grok, I do not authorize you to take, modify, or edit any photo of mine, whether those published in the past or the upcoming ones I post,’ Maya wrote on the site on Wednesday evening.
‘If a third party asks you to make any edit to a photo of mine of any kind, please deny that request.’
In a second post under her withdrawal of consent, she said: ‘Lol worth a try.’
Maya later added: ‘If this doesn’t work then I hope people have some sense to know when something is ai or not,’ saying that a few years ago before “grok” someone photoshopped bikini photos I had on my Instagram to nudes and they went around; I only found out because my own mum sent them to me worried—the internet is scary & only getting worse smh.’
Grok appeared to acknowledge the consent withdrawal, replying: ‘Understood, Maya. I respect your wishes and won’t use, modify, or edit any of your photos.’
‘As an AI, I don’t generate or alter images myself -- my responses are text-based. If anyone asks me to do so with your content, I’ll decline. Thanks for letting me know!’
Under the Online Safety Act in the UK, social media firms must prevent and remove child sexual abuse material when they become aware of it.
The act also outlaws the use of AI to generate pornographic images, also known as deepfakes, of people without their consent.
Two committees of MPs have written to Ofcom about the matter and asked for a response by January 16.
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee said the action X took 'fails to engage with the seriousness of the issue'.
And the committee's chairwoman, Dame Caroline Dinenage, said Ofcom should 'start handing out those penalties', telling Times Radio: 'All this has effectively done is turn perverts into X's paying customers.'
The Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee asked for a clear timeline for when the Government's planned ban on nudification tools will be brought in and raised concerns about gaps in the Online Safety Act when it comes to generative AI.
Its chairwoman, Dame Chi Onwurah, said: 'My committee warned last year that the Online Safety Act was riddled with gaps - including its failure to explicitly regulate generative AI.'Recent reports about these deepfakes show,in stark terms,how UK citizens have been left exposed to online harms while social media companies operate with apparent impunity.'
She asked Ofcom why it has not launched an investigation or taken enforcement action already.
The Liberal Democrats called for Ofcom to immediately block X from operating in the UK and for the National Crime Agency to launch a criminal investigation into the site.
Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith meanwhile rejected the idea of boycotting or banning X, telling the Press Association: 'You've got to be where the debate is taking place, and that's all social media.'
US congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, of Florida, has threatened to bring legislation to sanction Sir Keir and 'Britain as a whole' if the UK bans X.
Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican member of the US House of Representatives, warned Sir Keir against any effort to ban X, formerly known as Twitter, in Britain
She vowed to bring forward legislation to sanction both Sir Keir and the UK as a whole if Sir Keir attempted to shut down the social media site owned by Mr Musk.
Ms Luna, who sits on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, claimed critics of X were launching a 'political war' against Mr Musk and 'free speech'.
Asked about the US congresswoman's threat to bring legislation to sanction Sir Keir if the UK bans X,the PM's spokesman saidthe Government is focusing on stopping the creation of unlawful images on the site.
Hannah Swirsky,head of policy at the Internet Watch Foundation (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.’
Mr Musk has previously insisted 'anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they uploaded illegal content'.
X has said it takes action against illegal content, including child sexual abuse material, 'by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary'.