In this photo illustration, a screen displays examples of AI prompt-created videos, made with Xai's Grok app, on January 12, 2026 in London, England. In this photo illustration, a screen displays examples of AI prompt-created videos, made with Xai's Grok app, on January 12, 2026 in London, England. The United Kingdom plans to bring into force a law that criminalizes the creation of non-consensual sexualized images, including through Grok, the chatbot within Elon Musk's X application, following the app's deepfake scandal of the last few weeks. "This means individuals are committing a criminal offence if they create--or seek to create--such content--including on X--and anyone who does this should expect to face the full extent of the law," Technology Secretary Liz Kendal announced in the House of Commons Monday, adding that the government would work to also make it illegal for companies to supply the tools designed to create these nonconsensual images. The move came just hours after the Office of Communications (Ofcom)--the country's independent regulator for the communications industry--announced that it will be investigating X and the thousands of pornographic images generated by Grok that flooded the app, including sexualized images of what appear to be minors.

Welcome back to In the Loop, new twice-weekly newsletter about AI. If you're reading this in your browser, why not subscribe to have the next one delivered straight to your inbox? In the past few weeks, many tech leaders have made bold predictions about what AI will achieve in 2026, from mastering the field of biology to surpassing human intelligence outright . But in 2026's first week, the most visible use of AI has been X users employing Grok to digitally disrobe women. Elon Musk's platform X has been flooded with nonconsensual AI-created images, requested by users, of unclothed or scantily-clad women, men and children, sometimes in sexual positions.