Downing Street has condemned Ax’s move to limit its AI image generation tools to paying customers, calling it insulting and saying it made the ability to generate explicit and illegal images a premium service.
The image tool for Grok, X’s AI element, was used to manipulate thousands of images of women and sometimes children into taking off their clothes or placing them in sexual positions, sparking widespread outrage.
Grok announced in a post on X, which is owned by Elon Musk, that the ability to create and edit images “will be limited to paying customers”. Those paying must provide personal details, meaning they can be identified if the function is abused.
Asked about the change, a Downing Street spokesman said it was unacceptable. “This move simply turns an AI feature that allows illegal images to be created into a premium service,” he said.
“This is not a solution. In fact, it is misogyny and an insult to victims of sexual violence. It proves that
“If any other media company has billboards showing illegal images in city centres, it will take immediate action to remove them or face a public backlash.”
Asked whether No. 10 was going to take any further action, such as leaving the X, the spokesperson said, “All options are on the table”, and that he would support any action taken by Ofcom, the UK media regulator.
Speaking earlier on Friday, Anna Turley, chair of the Labor Party and minister without portfolio at the Cabinet Office, said no move had yet been made by the government to drop the Ax, but individual ministers were considering doing so.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It’s really very important that we deal with this. This conversation is happening across government. I think in politics we are all evaluating the use of social media and how we do it, and I know that conversation is happening.”
Asked whether she would leave the site, Turley said: “I’ve thought about it a lot over the last few months.” Asked whether the Labor Party would do that, he said: “Those conversations are happening because it’s really important that we make sure we’re in a safe place.”
Victims’ Commissioner Claire Waxman said that X is no longer a “safe space” for victims and that her office is considering reducing its presence on the site and focusing its communications on Instagram.
“It makes the fight against violence against women and girls that much more difficult when platforms like X are enabling abuse on such an easy and routine basis,” Waxman said. He said the platform was having a negative impact on the mental health of its users due to the spread of violence, abuse and racial hatred.
“Why isn’t that content being removed and those users being blocked?” he asked. “It’s not protecting its users.” Waxman said she was concerned about Ofcom’s ability to work effectively on platforms like X. “Does Ofcom really have the capacity to be able to deal with these types of issues? That’s a concern for me.”
There has been an exodus of women sector organizations from X. Domestic abuse charity Refuge has left the site, as have Women’s Aid Ireland and Victim Support. Victim Support left in April, saying it was “no longer the right place to communicate with our audiences”. Women’s Aid Ireland said the decision was taken due to “increasing levels of unchecked hatred, misogyny, racism and anti-LGBTI+ content on the platform”.
Emma Pickering, head of technology at Refuge, said that X’s decision to restrict access to image tools for Grok to paying customers is “monetization of abuse”.
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