‘If Labour can’t fight Elon Musk on Grok AI porn then, frankly, we're lost’

Read time: 4 mins

In brief…

• Elon Musk’s X/Twitter says people using its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of others – mostly women and children – to remove their clothes could face suspension or potential legal action.
• The News Agents say this statement is tough to swallow, with Musk having axed X’s safety teams, and his own desire for the internet to be a “wild west” of ‘free speech’.
• The UK government, which has control of its digital laws and landscape since Brexit, has offered a “pathetic” response in saying it is shocked by what is happening, but that it is a job for Ofcom to settle.

What’s the story?

Cure terminal illness? Solve world hunger? Make everyone’s lives easier?

Nope. We’re using AI to remove the clothes from photos of women and children posted on X/Twitter.

Users of the Elon Musk-owned social media app have been asking its AI chatbot, Grok, to reproduce photos to show people naked, or in sexual or otherwise compromising positions.

An apology has been issued through the Grok Twitter account, with the human-coded chatbot – which does not have autonomy – taking personal responsibility for the content, which it cannot do. A statement from Musk on X has warned users against creating and making child sex abuse images.

“There is a huge gap between what Elon Musk has said, and the reality,” says Jon Sopel.

When the billionaire first bought the social media platform, he boasted of having fired more than 80% of its workforce – including those whose job was to keep users safe from dangerous and damaging content.

“The first thing Musk did when he bought Twitter was to axe thousands of staff globally and downsize the platform's trust and safety, human rights and media teams who were there to police content to make sure that illegal content isn't posted.”

“So when X says it will deal with this, presumably you take that with a pinch of salt.”

Grok has continued to produce and share altered images when prompted by users to remove or amend clothes in photos.

Liz Kendall, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, has said "the UK will not tolerate the endless proliferation of disgusting and abusive material online" and urged Ofcom to take any action needed to end this worrying trend.

Ofcom says it has made “urgent contact” with X and xAI to address the issue.

Keir Starmer has said the situation is “completely unacceptable” – but has not committed to the government taking any direct action to protect users in the UK.

Why Musk won’t make changes

Jon says that rather than issuing warnings to users, perhaps a more responsible approach would be to amend Grok’s coding to prevent it from making explicit images of women and children.

But since Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter in October 2022, it has shifted from being a space focused on verified users sharing trusted information to a “digital town square” where disinformation is rife, and pornographic or violent content is just one click away.

“Part of this story is Musk's continued perversion – in every sense of the word right now – of a libertarian philosophy,” Lewis Goodall says.

“He thinks that his website and the whole of the internet should be above national law, above national regulation, and should be a wild west where absolutely anything goes in the name of freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

“This includes, apparently, the creation of paedophilic images of children.”

Government response ‘pathetic’

The government, Lewis says, is trying to pass the buck when it comes to this issue – and he describes its response as “pathetic”, and shows an “incomprehensible lack of bottle” in dealing with Musk.

“If you cannot win the political fight against the creation of paedophilic images, if you're not willing to draw that line in the sand and make that a political battle, then what is the point of them?” Lewis asks.

This, like Labour’s muted response to America’s invasion of Venezuela, is due to fear of angering Donald Trump, who has once again become close to Musk.

And in referring the matter to Ofcom, Labour is “washing its hands” of the matter.

“If the government does not want this to happen, it is very simple – they can legislate against it.

“They can dare Musk to take them on and tell him to stop doing this in our territory. One of the benefits of Brexit is that we've got complete control over these matters now.

“There have to be some rules, and if this isn't one of them, then, frankly, we're lost.”

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.