UK to bring into force law to tackle Grok AI deepfakes this week

The UK will deliver into power a regulation which can make it unlawful to create non-consensual intimate photos, following widespread considerations over Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot.

Expertise Secretary Liz Kendall stated the federal government would additionally search to make it unlawful for corporations to provide the instruments designed to create such photos.

Chatting with the Commons, Kendall stated AI-generated footage of ladies and kids in states of undress, created with out a individual’s consent, weren’t “innocent photos” however “weapons of abuse”.

The BBC has approached X for remark. It beforehand stated: “Anybody utilizing or prompting Grok to make unlawful content material will endure the identical penalties as in the event that they add unlawful content material.”

It comes hours after Ofcom announced it was launching an investigation into X over “deeply regarding reviews” about Grok altering photos of individuals.

If discovered to have damaged the regulation, Ofcom can doubtlessly concern X with a tremendous of as much as 10% of its worldwide income or £18 million, whichever is bigger.

And if X doesn’t comply, Ofcom can search a court docket order to power web service suppliers to dam entry to the location within the UK altogether.

In an announcement, Kendall urged the regulator to not take “months and months” to conclude its investigation, and demanded it set out a timeline “as quickly as attainable”.

It’s presently unlawful to share deepfakes of adults within the UK, however laws within the Knowledge (Use and Entry) Act which might make it a prison offence to create or request them has not been enforced till now, regardless of passing in June 2025.

Final week, campaigners accused the government of dragging its heels on implementing that regulation.

“Immediately I can announce to the Home that this offence will likely be introduced into power this week,” Kendall instructed MPs.

Along with the Knowledge Act, Kendall stated she would additionally make it a “precedence offence” within the On-line Security Act.

“The content material which has circulated on X is vile. It isn’t simply an affront to first rate society, it’s unlawful,” she stated.

“Let me be crystal clear – beneath the On-line Security Act, sharing intimate photos of individuals with out their consent, or threatening to share them, together with footage of individuals of their underwear, is a prison offence for people and for platforms.

“This implies people are committing a prison offence in the event that they create or search to create such content material together with on X, and anybody who does this could count on to face the complete extent of the regulation.”

However the know-how secretary stated the “duties don’t simply lie with people for their very own behaviour” – and “the platforms that host such materials should be held accountable, together with X”.

She stated the federal government would additionally construct on measures outlined within the Crime and Policing Invoice to criminalise nudification apps.

“This new prison offence will make it unlawful for corporations to provide instruments designed to create non-consensual intimate photos, concentrating on the issue at its supply,” she stated.

“Along with all of those actions, we count on know-how corporations to introduce the steps advisable by Ofcom’s steering on how you can make platforms safer for girls and ladies directly.

“If they don’t, I’m ready to go additional.”

Authorized skilled Jamie Hurworth stated Kendall’s feedback have been “an indicator of how significantly the federal government are actually taking this concern”.

“It stays to be seen whether or not an overstretched police power has ample assets to research and convey perpetrators earlier than the courts however it is vital that every hyperlink within the chain – from particular person creators to social media platforms – is held to account for his or her involvement in any such behaviour.”

Ofcom’s investigation will study whether or not X has did not take down unlawful content material rapidly when it turned conscious of it, and brought “acceptable steps” to forestall individuals within the UK from seeing it.

The choice follows a world backlash over Grok’s picture creation characteristic, with each Malaysia and Indonesia quickly blocking entry to the software over the weekend.

An Ofcom spokesperson didn’t give a sign on how lengthy the investigation would take however stated it could be a “matter of the very best precedence”.

In a response to an earlier put up questioning why different AI platforms weren’t being checked out, Elon Musk stated the UK authorities wished “any excuse for censorship”.

However Kendall refuted this.

“This isn’t, as some would declare, about limiting freedom of speech,” she stated.

“It’s about tackling violence in opposition to girls and ladies.”

Shadow know-how secretary Julia Lopez welcomed Ofcom’s investigation, and stated her get together supported the federal government on nudification instruments.

However she criticised the government over feedback Kendall made final week, when she stated she would again Ofcom if it blocked UK entry to X for failing to adjust to legal guidelines.

Ms Lopez stated regardless of the web being utilized by criminals earlier than, web sites haven’t been banned earlier than.

“It’s an awfully critical transfer in opposition to a platform that can be utilized for good, for uncovering scandal, sparking democratic revolution, and permitting day-to-day the free alternate of concepts, together with concepts we do not like.”