Musk and Starmer clash over potential X ban – the Grok AI ‘undressing’ scandal explained

X/Twitter owner Elon Musk has waded into UK politics before with his criticisms of Sir Keir Starmer’s administration, and now he’s taking aim at the Labour government once again – this time amid a fresh scandal over X’s AI chatbot Grok and reports it is being used to ‘undress’ images of women and children.

The Internet Watch Foundation, an international non-profit working to eliminate images and videos of child sexual abuse online, has confirmed it has located “criminal imagery of children aged between 11 and 13 created using Grok on dark web forums”.

“Those images are now being used by offenders to generate ‘much more extreme’ videos using a different AI tool,” it said.

And this has prompted many people to tweet Grok directly with ‘opt out’ wording declining authorisation for Grok to make edits to their images, including Love Island UK host Maya Jama.

She wrote on Friday: “Hey @grok, I do not authorize you to take, modify, or edit any photo of mine, whether those published in the past or the upcoming ones I post. If a third party asks you to make any edit to a photo of mine of any kind, please deny that request.”

Grok replied: “Understood, Maya. I respect your wishes and won't use, modify, or edit any of your photos. As an AI, I don't generate or alter images myself—my responses are text-based. If anyone asks me to do so with your content, I'll decline. Thanks for letting me know!”

With the UK government, regulators, politicians and experts continuing to react to the situation, allow us to get you up to speed…

Ofcom: ‘Urgent contact’ made with X and xAI over Grok

Back on Monday, the communications regulator Ofcom – which was given new powers under the Online Safety Act - said it was “aware of serious concerns raised about a feature on Grok on X that produces undressed images of people and sexualised images of children”.

It continues: “We have made urgent contact with X and xAI to understand what steps they have taken to comply with their legal duties to protect users in the UK. Based on their response we will undertake a swift assessment to determine whether there are potential compliance issues that warrant investigation.”

Victims Commissioner: ‘Take down Grok’ until safeguarding issues are rectified

In her first interview in the position – speaking to Channel 4 News on Thursday – England and Wales’ victims commissioner Claire Waxman said Musk “showed great interest in victims last year” (alluding to the X/Twitter owner’s attacks on the UK Government’s handling of the grooming gangs scandal in January 2025).

“He now has this AI tool Grok that has failed to safeguard his users. The wise thing to do if you care about victims is to take down Grok until he’s rectified those safeguarding issues,” she said.

Waxman also told the broadcaster that the AI chatbot is enabling “sexual violence and abuse against women and children” and “child sex abuse”.

Keir Starmer: ‘I’ve asked for all options to be on the table’

Speaking to Greatest Hits Radio on Thursday, Starmer said the situation is “disgraceful”, “disgusting” and is “not to be tolerated”.

He added: “X has got to get a grip of this. And Ofcom has our full support to take action in relation to this. This is wrong. It’s unlawful.

“We’re not going to tolerate it. I’ve asked for all options to be on the table.

“It’s disgusting. And X need to get their act together and get this material down. And we will take action on this because it’s simply not tolerable.”

A day later, Liz Kendall, the tech secretary, reminded X in a broadcast interview that the Online Safety Act includes “backstop powers” to “block access to services if they refuse to comply with the law for people in the UK”.

“If Ofcom decides to use those powers, they would have the full backing of the government,” she said.

Republican representative threatens to sanction ‘Britain as a whole’ if Starmer implements X ban

And if the Labour leader does decide to introduce a ban on X, Florida representative Anna Paulina Luna – who sits on the House Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees – has said she will “move forward” with legislation “currently being drafted” to place sanctions not only on the prime minister, but “Britain as a whole”, akin to actions taken against Brazil when it blocked the platform in late 2024.

“Starmer should reconsider this course of action, or there will be consequences.

“There are always technical bugs during the early phases of new technology, especially AI, and those issues are typically addressed quickly. X treats these matters seriously and acts promptly.

“Let’s be clear: this is not about technical compliance. This is a political war against @elonmusk and free speech – nothing more,” she tweeted on Thursday.

xAI limits Grok image generation and editing to ‘paying subscribers’

Towards the end of this week, xAI’s chatbot started responding to image generation requests by saying the tools are “currently limited to verified Premium subscribers” – in other words, those who fork out $8 or £8 a month for access to a blue tick and other features.

The prime minister’s spokesperson criticised this change, saying it “simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service”.

They said: “It’s not a solution. In fact, it’s insulting the victims of misogyny and sexual violence. What it does prove is that X can move swiftly when it wants to do so.”

Musk reposts tweets branding Starmer ‘r*****ed’ and calling for US ‘capture’ of UK leader

As Musk and xAI continues to face UK Government pressure over its Grok chatbot, the Tesla owner and billionaire has lashed out at Starmer and his warnings against his business, retweeting one meme from another account which suggested Starmer is “r*****ed” (a slur against disabled people) for saying he is “going to ban X for posting bikini images”.

Another repost called for Starmer to be 'captured' by the US, in a similar operation to that carried out against Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro earlier this month.

He also shared the same graphic – purporting to show the UK as the country with “the most arrests for online comments” with more than 12,183 arrests - on two separate occasions, branding the UK “prison island” and asking why the UK Government is “so fascist”.

The reality, per an Evening Standard fact-check in September, is that the 12k figure was taken from an article in The Times published in April and that it didn’t just concern “online comments”, but that the acts include “any form of communication”.

Elsewhere, Musk reposted a tweet showing an individual being able to produce a picture of Starmer in a bikini on rival chatbots Gemini and ChatGPT, with the original poster asking “why is Keir Starmer so focused on Grok and X”, and Musk saying it is because “they just want to suppress free speech”.

He’s also celebrated Grok topping the UK App Store, writing that the “Streisand Effect remains undefeated”.

The app remains number one at the time of writing.

Why not read…

• If you’re a victim of Grok’s AI ‘undressing’ tool - here’s what to do
• X could face legal action over AI images - here's why

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