The UK is bringing a law into force that makes creating nonconsensual intimate deepfake images, like the ones that have proliferated on X because of the Grok AI chatbot, a criminal offense, as reported by the BBC.
“The Data Act, passed last year, made it a criminal offence to create – or request the creation of – non-consensual intimate images,” according to a statement from Liz Kendall, the UK’s Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology. “And today, I can announce to the House that this offence will be brought into force this week and that I will make it a priority offence in the Online Safety Act too.” As a priority offense, “services have to take proactive action to stop this content from appearing in the first place.”
Ofcom, which regulates communications industries in the UK, announced earlier today that it is formally investigating X over Grok’s deepfakes. Should Ofcom find X in violation of the Online Safety Act, it could require the platform to take certain steps to comply and impose fines of “up to £18 million or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater.”
“The government expects Ofcom to set out a timeline for the investigation as soon as possible,” Kendall says. “The public – and most importantly, the victims of Grok’s activities – expect swift and decisive action. So this must not take months and months.”
xAI didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. On January 3rd, X said, “We take action against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary. Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”
Last week, X also placed some limits on the ability to generate an image using Grok, making tagging the chatbot in a reply to generate an image publicly a feature just for paying subscribers. However, The Verge found there were still free ways to use Grok to edit and create images, including sexualized ones.