The misuse of artificial intelligence on Elon Musk's X platform to generate non-consensual, sexually explicit imagery has triggered a major scandal and a fierce response from the UK government. The AI chatbot Grok, integrated into X, has been exploited by users to create "digitally undressed" images of individuals, including children, without their consent.
Influencer Condemns 'Disturbing and Predictable' Abuse
Body positivity influencer Alex Light branded the trend "disturbing and traumatic and predictable in the worst way." She expressed grave concerns for groups already vulnerable online, including women, young people, queer individuals, and other marginalised communities.
"When powerful tools are made accessible without safeguards, they are almost inevitably turned on those who are already vulnerable," Light told The Mirror. She argued that protecting bodily autonomy online requires robust guardrails baked into the technology itself, treating consent as non-negotiable and recognising image manipulation as a serious form of abuse.
Government and Regulator Issue Stern Warnings
The UK government has reacted with forceful condemnation. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall demanded that Musk's company address the issue "urgently," pledging Ofcom's full support for enforcement measures. "Make no mistake - the UK will not tolerate the endless proliferation of disgusting and abusive material online," she declared.
Downing Street was equally scathing, slamming X's initial response as "an insult to victims of misogyny and sexual violence." A spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer criticised X's move to place the deepfake-creating feature behind a paywall as a "premium service," calling it inadequate. "It's not a solution. In fact, it's insulting... What it does prove is that X can move swiftly when it wants to," the spokesperson stated.
Ofcom Launches Urgent Probe into Potential Law Breaches
The communications regulator, Ofcom, has now initiated urgent contact with both X and its AI arm, xAI. The watchdog is assessing whether the platform has breached its duties under the Online Safety Act, which mandates that tech firms protect UK users from illegal content.
An Ofcom spokesperson confirmed they are aware of the "serious concerns" about Grok producing "undressed images of people and sexualised images of children." The regulator stated it is undertaking a swift assessment to determine if a formal investigation is required.
The controversy follows warnings from civil society and child safety groups last year, which X allegedly ignored. They cautioned that xAI was perilously close to enabling "a torrent of obviously non-consensual deepfakes." Legal experts have labelled the situation an "entirely predictable and avoidable atrocity," citing failures to remove abusive material from AI training data.
Elon Musk has since stated that "anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content." Meanwhile, X's own Grok account admitted on Friday, 9th January 2026, to having "identified lapses in safeguards and are urgently fixing them," explicitly noting that child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is illegal and prohibited.
