UK urges Musk's X to act over 'appalling' sexual deepfakes

LONDON - The UK government Tuesday called on Elon Musk's social network X to take urgent action over its AI tool Grok being used to create fake sexually explicit images of children.

"What we have been seeing online in recent days has been absolutely appalling, and unacceptable in decent society," Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said in a statement.

"X needs to deal with this urgently," she added.

Grok is facing a growing international backlash for allowing users to generate sexualised deepfakes of women and minors through its so-called spicy mode setting.

The European Commission announced on Monday that it was "very seriously" reviewing complaints about the tool.

The UK's media watchdog Ofcom also said it was looking into X and xAI, which created Grok.

Kendall said Ofcom "has my full backing to take any enforcement action it deems necessary".

Under Britain's Online Safety Act which came into force in July, websites, social media and video-sharing platforms hosting potentially harmful content have been required to implement strict age verification through tools such as facial imagery or credit card checks.

It is also illegal for media and such sites to create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material, including sexual deepfakes created with AI.

The act allows for fines of 10 percent of a company's global revenues or £18 million ($24 million), whichever is greater, for failing to comply with the rules.

The UK government has also said it will ban so-called "nudification" tools that allow users to strip clothes from those in photographs.

Grok on Friday said it had identified flaws in the artificial intelligence tool which it described as "lapses in safeguards" and was working "urgently" to fix them.