British government on handling Musk's AI Grok: "Insults victims"

Despite apparent changes to access for AI image generation, the British government has sharply criticized Elon Musk's online platform X and threatened consequences. The move to only allow paying customers to modify and create images with the artificial intelligence Grok was "an insult to victims of misogyny and sexual violence," Downing Street stated.

X had also come under massive criticism within the European Union recently because users can ask the AI chatbot to sexualize posted images, even if they depict children. The European Commission ordered the US company not to destroy internal documents about Grok, but to preserve them until the end of the year. Brussels doubts that X is complying with European digital laws.

On Friday, it became apparent that the AI function is only accessible to subscription customers – at least a corresponding
message was displayed when Grok was asked to generate images. According to the British newspaper "The Guardian," the function is therefore no longer accessible to most X users.

"Not a solution" to the problem

This step "simply turns an AI function that enables the creation of illegal images into a premium service," said a spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. It is "not a solution," but it does show that X can act quickly if it wants to. "All options" remain on the table as consequences.

The EU Commission also stated that the paid membership measure does not change the fundamental problem. "Paid membership or unpaid
membership, we don't want to see such images," said a spokesperson for the Brussels authority. Starmer had described the deepfake images as "disgusting," according to a BBC report.

The British media regulator Ofcom had asked X for an urgent statement on Monday. According to the PA news agency, the authority is now conducting an accelerated assessment of the case after a response from X and xAI. Technology Minister Liz Kendall said she expected Ofcom to use its full legal powers. The British Online Safety Act contains the power to block services in Great Britain if they refuse to comply with British law, the minister said.

Already shocked with praise for Hitler

On New Year's Eve, the chatbot apologized for creating and sharing an image of two teenage girls "in sexualized outfits".
"This was a failure of our safety measures, and I apologize for any harm caused," Grok wrote on X. In the summer, Grok had already shocked with praise for Adolf Hitler. At that time, the bot was temporarily shut down completely by X, which has not happened so far.

(nen)