As global leaders condemn news that Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot is creating non-consensual sexualised images, the UK has announced it will bring into force a law to making the practice illegal.
In recent months, thousands of cases have emerged where Musk’s social media site X has been accused of undressing women and putting them in sexual positions without their consent.
Addressing the situation, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the press she was “appalled that a tech platform is enabling users to digitally undress women and children online.”
“It is unthinkable behaviour, and the harm caused by these deepfakes is very real,” von der Leyen said. “We will not be outsourcing child protection and consent to Silicon Valley. If they will not act, we will.”
One woman in the UK told the BBC that more than 100 sexualised images have been created of her.
While it’s currently illegal to share deepfakes in the UK, the country is bringing in new legislation to make it illegal to create such images in the first place. The UK’s Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the government also wants to make it illegal for companies to supply the tools designed to create the images.
Speaking to the importance of such legal intervention, Kendall said AI-generated, non-consensual images of undressed women and children were not “harmless images” but “weapons of abuse”.
The legislation was already passed in the Data (Use and Access) Act in June 2025, but advocates have accused the UK government of being slow to implement enforcement.
This week, Kendall told MPs in the UK Commons that the offence will be brought into force, adding that she will make it a “priority offence” in the Online Safety Act.
“Let me be crystal clear – under the Online Safety Act, sharing intimate images of people without their consent, or threatening to share them, including pictures of people in their underwear, is a criminal offence for individuals and for platforms,” said Kendall.
“This means individuals are committing a criminal offence if they create or seek to create such content including on X, and anyone who does this should expect to face the full extent of the law.”
The UK’s watchdog, Ofcom, has also launched an investigation into Musk’s Grok AI chatbot, saying there had been “deeply concerning reports”.
If Ofcom finds that the tool on X has broken the law, the watchdog can potentially issue the platform with a fine of up to 10 per cent of its worldwide revenue or £18 million ($AUD36 million), whichever is greater.
Musk’s deepfake tool has prompted investigations from regulators across Europe, including Brussels, Dublin and Paris.
In response to the widespread condemnation, X has made the AI image tool only available to users with paid subscriptions, but the EU Commission has said this will not mean an end to their investigation.