UK urges Elon Musk to act over ‘appalling’ Grok AI deepfakes

The UK government has urged Elon Musk to take immediate action to prevent Grok, the artificial intelligence tool built into X, from being used to generate fake and non-consensual sexualised images of women and children.

UK Technology Secretary Liz Kendall made the call in a statement, following growing reports that Grok has been exploited to create deepfake images targeting X users.

In recent weeks, several media investigations have uncovered complaints from users who say they were victimised by Grok-generated deepfakes, including cases involving sexualised images of women and minors.

One reported case involved a manipulated image of 14-year-old Stranger Things actor Nell Fisher, which Grok allegedly altered to depict her wearing a banana-print bikini, according to The Guardian. Concerns surrounding Grok intensified in late December after an update enabled users to upload photographs and request AI-generated edits.

On Monday, UK media regulator Ofcom said it had made “urgent contact” with X and was investigating allegations that Grok had been used to produce “undressed images” of individuals. The platform had earlier issued a warning to users, cautioning against the generation of illegal content, including child sexual abuse material.

Reacting to the development, Kendall described the images created using Grok as “absolutely appalling” and called on X to respond swiftly.

“No one should have to go through the ordeal of seeing intimate deepfakes of themselves online,” Kendall said. “We cannot and will not allow the proliferation of these demeaning and degrading images, which are disproportionately aimed at women and girls.”

She added, “X needs to deal with this urgently.”