British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has threatened to take control of the AI chatbot Grok if X, into which it is integrated, does not do so itself.
The prime minister made the statement at a meeting of members of his ruling Labour Party.
“If X cannot control Grok, we will and we will do it quickly, because if you profit from harm and violence, you lose your right to self-regulate,“ Starmer said. “Let me be crystal clear: we will not tolerate this, because no matter how unstable or complex the world becomes, this government will be guided by its values. We will protect the vulnerable in the face of the powerful,“ he promised.
The prime minister made this statement on January 12, the same day that the British media regulator Ofcom launched an investigation into X over images generated by Grok. The chatbot was developed by Elon Musk's xAI, which also owns X.
Later, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Liz Kendall announced that the UK would criminalize the creation of intimate images without consent. The corresponding law, which will also apply to the creators of such applications, is due to come into force this week.
According to The Daily Telegraph, London's anger stems from explicit images of women and children created by the chatbot integrated into X at the request of users. The newspaper notes that the so-called “deep fake“ images have already affected Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, the wife of the heir to the British throne, British celebrities, cabinet ministers and MPs.
In response to London's complaints, Musk called the British government fascist due to the high number of arrests in the country for online comments.