Jess Phillips delivers powerful message to Elon Musk's X over child deepfake scandal - The Mirror

Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips called on police to 'relentlessly pursue' people who make sick fake images and warned that if X does not act, the Government will

The UK's safeguarding minister has called on police to relentlessly pursue people who use Elon Musk's Grok to make sick deepfake images of kids.

Jess Phillips told The Mirror that the tech billionaire's X platform must stop hiding behind excuses as anger grows around the scandal. X's artificial intelligence service, Grok, has come under fire after generating declothed images of people - including children - without their consent.

Ms Phillips said such functions should never exist - and lives were being ruined as a result of abuse. Last week X - formerly known as Twitter - announced Grok will make creating deepfakes a "premium service", only available to paying users. Ms Phillips dismissed this as a "pathetic half measure".

She said: "Images that are AI-generated are no different to those which have been created in real-life and the police must relentlessly pursue perpetrators who create or distribute these images for their own sick purposes. Anyone caught with the most sickening material can expect to face up to 10 years behind bars.

“Limiting Grok’s image generator to paid users is a pathetic half-measure. Tools that create vile, degrading, non-consensual images should never exist – to paying or non-paying users and X must stop hiding behind excuses and work with the regulator to comply with the law. Lives are being wrecked by this abuse and women and girls bear the brunt."

She said social media platforms have a clear legal duty to remove such content - and could be hit with fines in the tens of millions of pounds by regulator Ofcom if they do not.

She said the Government expects Ofcom not to hesitate when using those powers. And she stated: “Child sexual abuse is a vile crime that inflicts long lasting trauma on victims.

"UK law is crystal clear – creating, possessing or distributing child sexual abuse images, including those that are AI generated, is illegal. Those caught doing it will face the full force of the law."

Celebrities including Maya Jama have demanded the platform stops generating such pictures of them. Under new laws being pushed through by the Government, creating, possessing and distributing sick AI images of kids will result in up to five years in prison.

And Labour's violence against women and girls (VAWG) strategy commits the UK to outlaw nudification apps - which generate deepfake images of victims without their consent.

Ms Phillips said: "This Government has already legislated to make it an offence for anyone using Grok or a similar tool to create intimate deepfake images without someone's consent. The Ministry of Justice will be bringing this into force as a matter of urgency.

“Now it’s time for X and other platforms to step up. No more excuses. If they won’t act, we will."

Ofcom last week made "urgent contact" with Musk's X and xAI over "serious concerns" that Grok had made sexualised images of kids. It said it was aware of a feature on Grok, which was developed by xAI, that creates undressed images of people and sexualised images of children.

A post on Grok’s X account last week admitted the company has “identified lapses in safeguards and are urgently fixing them—CSAM (child sexual abuse material) is illegal and prohibited”.

Musk said: “Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”