Generating sexual images of someone without their consent, including through the use of AI, will become a criminal offence this week.
Science and Tech Secretary Liz Kendall made the announcement on Monday after widespread fury over pictures made using Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok.
Last week, many users of the billionaire’s social media site X asked AI software to remove the clothing from an image of any person – with women and children among the targets.
Metro reported last Tuesday that two cabinet ministers had also been victims of the twisted trend.
Musk later changed the rules so only verified users of the Grok service – whose real identities were attached to their accounts – could generate deepfake images.
But he also made light of the behaviour by generating an image of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in a bikini, and suggesting the limitations were an attack on free speech.
In the House of Commons yesterday, Kendall said a criminal offence of generating sexual images without consent would be brought into force this week.
It would come under the Data (Use and Access) Act which was passed by Parliament last year.
So-called ‘nudification’ apps are also due to be outlawed in the flagship Crime and Policing Bill which is currently moving through the parliamentary process.
That legislation will also block companies from supplying the tools to create non-consensual images, which Kendall said would tackle the issue ‘at its source’.
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She did not specify which day this week the new criminal offence is due to come into effect.
Starmer told Labour MPs yesterday X could lose its ability to self-regulate over the controversy.
He said: ‘If X cannot control Grok, we will – and we’ll do it fast because if you profit from harm and abuse, you lose the right to self regulate.’
Meanwhile, Ofcom is investigating whether X broke the law by failing to comply with its duty to protect people in the UK from illegal content.
The regulator said: ‘There have been deeply concerning reports of the Grok AI chatbot account on X being used to create and share undressed images of people – which may amount to intimate image abuse or pornography – and sexualised images of children that may amount to child sexual abuse material.’
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