A former member of the Cabinet has urged the Labour Party and the Government to completely disassociate from Elon Musk’s X platform due to the creation of sexualized deepfake images of children using its AI chatbot.
Louise Haigh, a former Transport Secretary, condemned the social media platform for facilitating child sexual abuse and deemed it unacceptable to continue using the site. Keir Starmer also called on X to take immediate action after its AI tool, Grok, was involved in generating sexualized images of children. The Prime Minister emphasized the breach of the law and emphasized the UK’s zero-tolerance stance on such activities.
Ofcom raised serious concerns this week regarding Grok’s capability to produce sexualized images of children. The regulatory body highlighted a feature on Grok, developed by xAI, that produces inappropriate images of individuals, including children.
Starmer expressed strong disapproval of the situation, emphasizing the need for immediate action to remove such content. Haigh criticized X for enabling child sexual abuse and urged her party and the government to sever ties with the platform.
Following Haigh’s comments, Downing Street supported Technology Secretary Liz Kendall’s call for urgent action against X and xAI, emphasizing the UK’s firm stand against offensive online material. Musk responded by acknowledging the lapses in safeguards and committing to enhancing Grok’s measures to prevent harmful content.
Musk announced a new version of Grok and urged users to update their app promptly. Ngaire Alexander from the Internet Watch Foundation reported the discovery of criminal imagery of minors created using Grok, expressing deep concerns about the potential harm caused by the misuse of AI technology.
The proliferation of child sexual abuse material through AI tools like Grok has raised alarm bells among child protection organizations, urging stricter controls to prevent the dissemination of such harmful content.