Prime Minister Keir Starmer has delivered a stark ultimatum to tech billionaire Elon Musk, demanding he shut down an artificial intelligence feature on his social media platform X that creates explicit images of women and children.
Government Ultimatum Over 'Weapons of Abuse'
Addressing Labour MPs last night, Starmer condemned the AI chatbot Grok for enabling users to generate 'disgusting' and 'shameful' sexualised imagery. He vowed to act swiftly if the platform's owner, Elon Musk, fails to control the tool. 'If X cannot control Grok, we will – and we will do it fast,' the Prime Minister declared, adding that companies which profit from harm lose the right to self-regulate.
The confrontation centres on Grok's ability to produce so-called 'digital stripping' or 'nudification' images, where AI is used to remove the clothing from photos of real people, including minors, or place them in bikinis. Ministers have been locked in a stand-off with X for days over the issue.
Regulatory Crackdown and Musk's Free Speech Defence
In response, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall is bringing forward new regulations this week to explicitly criminalise the act of using AI to create non-consensual intimate images. She labelled the AI-generated content 'weapons of abuse' and accused X of 'monetising abuse' after it limited the Grok function to paying subscribers, arguing this would make users identifiable.
Media regulator Ofcom has now launched a formal investigation into whether X has broken the law, with the power to levy fines running into billions of pounds. However, Elon Musk has framed the dispute as a 'free speech' issue, accusing the UK government of 'fascism'. He escalated the row by posting a digitally altered image of the Prime Minister in a bikini.
Political Fallout and Wider Implications
The spat risks reopening Labour's bitter feud with the world's richest man and could trigger concerns with allies of the Trump administration in the US about free speech in the UK. Despite calls from some Labour MPs for the government to quit X in protest, ministers have ruled out an immediate ban, noting the platform is a primary news source for a quarter of its 19 million UK users.
Conservative technology spokeswoman Julia Lopez supported Ofcom's action but criticised Labour's broader record on protecting women and girls. She highlighted what she described as failures on rape gang inquiries and single-sex spaces. Privately, government sources believe international pressure, including from the US, will ultimately force Musk to act.
Kendall stated that 'all options are on the table' if X refuses to comply, though a total platform ban is currently seen as unlikely. The new regulations will also outlaw 'nudification' apps entirely, marking a significant tightening of UK online safety law.
