UK PM Keir Starmer’s workplace says transfer to restrict entry to paying subscribers ‘insulting’ to victims and ‘not an answer’.
Revealed On 9 Jan 2026
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok has restricted picture technology on the social media platform X amid growing backlash over its use to create sexualised deepfakes of girls and youngsters.
Grok informed X customers on Friday that picture technology and modifying options had been now out there solely to paying subscribers.
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The standalone Grok app, which operates individually from X, nonetheless permits customers to generate photos with no subscription.
The transfer comes after Musk was threatened with fines and several other countries pushed back publicly in opposition to the instrument that allowed customers to change on-line photos to take away the topics’ garments.
The European Fee mentioned on Monday that such photos circulating on X had been illegal and appalling.
The UK’s information regulator additionally mentioned it had requested the platform to elucidate the way it was complying with information safety legal guidelines following issues that Grok was producing sexually abusive photos of girls.
On Friday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s workplace referred to as the transfer to restrict entry to paying subscribers “insulting” to victims and “not an answer”.
“That merely turns an AI characteristic that permits the creation of illegal photos right into a premium service,” a Downing Avenue spokesperson mentioned. “It’s insulting the victims of misogyny and sexual violence.”
The EU government, for its half, mentioned it had “taken notice of the latest modifications”.
However EU digital affairs spokesperson Thomas Regnier informed reporters, “This doesn’t change our basic challenge, paid subscription or non-paid subscription.”
“We don’t need to see such photos. It’s so simple as that,” he mentioned, including, “What we’re asking platforms to do is to be sure that their design, that their programs don’t permit the technology of such unlawful content material.”
The European Fee has ordered X to retain all inside paperwork and information associated to Grok till the tip of 2026 in response to the uproar concerning the sexualised photos.
France, Malaysia and India have additionally criticised Musk’s platform over the difficulty.
Musk mentioned final week that anybody utilizing Grok to create unlawful content material would face the identical penalties as importing such materials straight.
This isn’t the primary time that Grok has been criticised, after the chatbot final yr was slammed for providing anti-Semitic responses to questions from X customers.
In July, Musk’s synthetic intelligence agency xAI disabled Grok’s text replies and deleted posts after the chatbot praised Adolf Hitler and made anti-Semitic remarks.
