 "'Excuse for censorship': Musk dismisses backlash against Grok over sexual deepfakes")
Elon Musk is locked in a high-stakes standoff with UK regulators, dismissing the backlash against his platform X as a hunt for “any excuse for censorship.”
The confrontation ignited following disturbing reports that X’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, was being used to generate non-consensual sexualized imagery of people, including children. In a move that has further fueled the fire, X responded by restricting these AI image tools to paying subscribers only, a change Downing Street slammed as “insulting” to victims of sexual violence.
Government and regulatory action
The British government has signalled that it will not back down. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall blasted the sexual manipulation of images featuring women and children as “despicable and abhorrent,” demanding an update from regulators in a matter of “days.”
Ofcom, the UK’s communications watchdog, has already moved into an emergency phase of its investigation. A spokesperson confirmed, “We urgently made contact [with X] on Monday and set a firm deadline of today [Friday] to explain themselves, to which we have received a response."
Despite the investigation, X’s current strategy appears to be monetisation rather than removal. Users attempting to access the tool without a subscription are now told, “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers… [users] can subscribe to unlock these features."
The situation is now at a critical turning point. Ofcom is conducting an “expedited assessment as a matter of urgency,” and the legal ramifications for Musk’s company could be severe. Under the Online Safety Act, the regulator has the power to seek a court order to prevent third parties from helping X raise money and block access to the platform entirely within the UK should the firm refuse to comply with safety standards.
Quick Reads
View AllGrok reports higher funding
xAI has reported higher funding despite the widespread claims that its model generates sexually explicit and non-consensual images of women and young girls.
xAI has generated $20 billion in its latest funding round, the startup announced on Tuesday. Some of the companies that featured in xAI’s Series E funding round include Nvidia, Fidelity Management and Resource Company, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, and Valor Equity Partners.
The company’s Colossus I and II data centres in Memphis now house over one million high-performing GPUs, the AI chips from Nvidia that are supercharging AI development.
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