Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy has said US Vice-President JD Vance agreed that it is “entirely unacceptable” for platforms like X to allow the proliferation of AI-generated sexualised images of women and children. The comments follow their meeting in Washington on Thursday.
The row centres on X’s AI chatbot, Grok, which has been used to manipulate images into sexual positions. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has warned that X could be blocked in the UK over the “disgusting” content, while Elon Musk has accused the government of censorship and called it “fascist”.
Lammy said Vance was “sympathetic” to the UK’s position and recognised the seriousness of the issue. “He agreed with me that it was entirely unacceptable,” Lammy said, adding that X had announced changes later that day, though reports suggest some image-manipulation features remain accessible to paid subscribers.
Vance, an AI enthusiast, also expressed concern about the technology fueling “hyper-pornographied slop”. The meeting also covered the war in Ukraine, Venezuela, and Greenland, amid sensitive US-UK relations. Lammy stressed that international laws are under “tremendous strain” in a multipolar world.
