Elon Musk's X is under fire after authorities said it was being used to generate explicit images. Photo: Jonathan Raa / NurPhoto via AFP
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer says Elon Musk's X is acting to ensure full compliance with UK law after global outrage over its Grok chatbot's ability to generate sexualised AI imagery.
The apparent backdown by the social media platform comes days after the UK's media regulator, Ofcom, announced it would launch a probe into the issue.
"I have been informed this morning that X is acting to ensure full compliance with UK law," Sir Keir told parliament, adding that the government would take further measures if needed.
Shortly after the UK prime minister's statement, Musk posted on X that Grok will always comply with the law of the countries in which it operates.
"When asked to generate images, [Grok] will refuse to produce anything illegal, as the operating principle for Grok is to obey the laws of any given country or state," he said.
X owner Elon Musk. Photo: AFP
The UK is among countries to express alarm at Grok's image generation features, which allowed users to create sexually intimate deepfake images.
After global outrage, X earlier this month announced it had restricted requests to undress people in images to only paying subscribers.
In launching its investigation on Monday, local time, Ofcom said it was probing whether the platform was in violation of its duty to protect people in the UK from illegal content.
Science and Technology Minister Liz Kendall said a new law making it an offence to create sexual deepfakes would come into force this week to tackle the images, which she called "weapons of abuse".
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The UK government was among several to express outrage at the feature.
Earlier this week, Indonesia and Malaysia moved to block Grok within its borders. The European Union, India and France have also expressed their concerns over the platform.
- ABC
