UK to bring into force law to tackle Grok AI deepfakes this week

The UK will carry into pressure a regulation which is able to make it unlawful to create non-consensual intimate photographs, following widespread considerations over Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot.

Know-how Secretary Liz Kendall mentioned the federal government would additionally search to make it unlawful for firms to provide the instruments designed to create such photographs.

Chatting with the Commons, Kendall mentioned AI-generated photos of ladies and kids in states of undress, created with no particular person’s consent, weren’t “innocent photographs” however “weapons of abuse”.

The BBC has approached X for remark. It beforehand mentioned: “Anybody utilizing or prompting Grok to make unlawful content material will undergo the identical penalties as in the event that they add unlawful content material.”

It comes hours after Ofcom announced it was launching an investigation into X over “deeply regarding stories” about Grok altering photographs of individuals.

If discovered to have damaged the regulation, Ofcom can probably subject X with a superb of as much as 10% of its worldwide income or £18 million, whichever is bigger.

And if X doesn’t comply, Ofcom can search a court docket order to pressure web service suppliers to dam entry to the positioning within the UK altogether.

In an announcement, Kendall urged the regulator to not take “months and months” to conclude its investigation, and demanded it set out a timeline “as quickly as potential”.

It’s at present unlawful to share deepfakes of adults within the UK, however laws within the Knowledge (Use and Entry) Act which might make it a felony offence to create or request them has not been enforced till now, regardless of passing in June 2025.

Final week, campaigners accused the government of dragging its heels on implementing that regulation.

“At the moment I can announce to the Home that this offence can be introduced into pressure this week,” Kendall instructed MPs.

Along with the Knowledge Act, Kendall mentioned she would additionally make it a “precedence offence” within the On-line Security Act.

“The content material which has circulated on X is vile. It isn’t simply an affront to respectable society, it’s unlawful,” she mentioned.

“Let me be crystal clear – beneath the On-line Security Act, sharing intimate photographs of individuals with out their consent, or threatening to share them, together with photos of individuals of their underwear, is a felony offence for people and for platforms.

“This implies people are committing a felony offence in the event that they create or search to create such content material together with on X, and anybody who does this could anticipate to face the complete extent of the regulation.”

However the know-how secretary mentioned the “tasks don’t simply lie with people for their very own behaviour” – and “the platforms that host such materials should be held accountable, together with X”.

She mentioned the federal government would additionally construct on measures outlined within the Crime and Policing Invoice to criminalise nudification apps.

“This new felony offence will make it unlawful for firms to provide instruments designed to create non-consensual intimate photographs, concentrating on the issue at its supply,” she mentioned.

“Along with all of those actions, we anticipate know-how firms to introduce the steps beneficial by Ofcom’s steering on the right way to make platforms safer for girls and women directly.

“If they don’t, I’m ready to go additional.”

Authorized professional Jamie Hurworth mentioned Kendall’s feedback had been “an indicator of how critically the federal government are actually taking this subject”.

“It stays to be seen whether or not an overstretched police pressure has enough sources to analyze and convey perpetrators earlier than the courts however it will be important that every hyperlink within the chain – from particular person creators to social media platforms – is held to account for his or her involvement in any such behaviour.”

Ofcom’s investigation will look at whether or not X has didn’t take down unlawful content material rapidly when it turned conscious of it, and brought “acceptable steps” to forestall folks within the UK from seeing it.

The choice follows a worldwide backlash over Grok’s picture creation characteristic, with each Malaysia and Indonesia quickly blocking entry to the software over the weekend.

An Ofcom spokesperson didn’t give a sign on how lengthy the investigation would take however mentioned it might be a “matter of the best precedence”.

In a response to an earlier put up questioning why different AI platforms weren’t being checked out, Elon Musk mentioned the UK authorities needed “any excuse for censorship”.

However Kendall refuted this.

“This isn’t, as some would declare, about limiting freedom of speech,” she mentioned.

“It’s about tackling violence towards ladies and women.”

Shadow know-how secretary Julia Lopez welcomed Ofcom’s investigation, and mentioned her social gathering supported the federal government on nudification instruments.

However she criticised the government over feedback Kendall made final week, when she mentioned she would again Ofcom if it blocked UK entry to X for failing to adjust to legal guidelines.

Ms Lopez mentioned regardless of the web being utilized by criminals earlier than, web sites haven’t been banned earlier than.

“It’s a very severe transfer towards a platform that can be utilized for good, for uncovering scandal, sparking democratic revolution, and permitting day-to-day the free change of concepts, together with concepts we do not like.”