UK prime minister vows to take action against Elon Musk’s X over AI-generated images of minors, as Grok limits image generation to paid users
Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to “take action” against Elon Musk’s X over its AI tool Grok producing sexualized images of children.
Speaking on Thursday, the UK premier called the images “unlawful” and urged the social media platform to “get their act together and get this material down,” as public outrage mounts over Grok generating explicit deepfakes on X.
According to a third-party analysis published this week, X is seeing thousands of instances of images where people have been nonconsensually undressed by its AI tool occurring each hour. The UK’s Internet Watch Foundation has also reported finding “sexualized” images of children created on the site.
Starmer has said that he supports a potential intervention by Ofcom, the UK’s primary authority media regulator, with government sources telling BBC News, “We would expect Ofcom to use all powers at its disposal in regard to Grok & X.”
As such, whether X will now be banned in the country has been brought into question, with prediction markets reacting to the news this morning. As of 10 a.m. London time, traders were pegging the chance of a Grok ban before March 1, 2026, at about 23%.
(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)
On Friday morning, presumably in response to growing criticism in the UK and around the world, the social media site appears to have limited access to the tools, with Grok replies on the site saying, “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers.”
According to a third-party analysis published this week, X is seeing thousands of instances of images where people have been nonconsensually undressed by its AI tool occurring each hour. The UK’s Internet Watch Foundation has also reported finding “sexualized” images of children created on the site.
Starmer has said that he supports a potential intervention by Ofcom, the UK’s primary authority media regulator, with government sources telling BBC News, “We would expect Ofcom to use all powers at its disposal in regard to Grok & X.”
As such, whether X will now be banned in the country has been brought into question, with prediction markets reacting to the news this morning. As of 10 a.m. London time, traders were pegging the chance of a Grok ban before March 1, 2026, at about 23%.
(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)
On Friday morning, presumably in response to growing criticism in the UK and around the world, the social media site appears to have limited access to the tools, with Grok replies on the site saying, “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers.”
