Musk ‘ideologically committed’ to pushing free speech boundaries – Louise Haigh

The Government was right to be “tough” in taking on Elon Musk over his AI chatbot Grok’s nudification technology, an influential Labour former minister has said.

Louise Haigh said the tech boss is “ideologically committed to pushing the boundaries of free speech”, and warned the British lawmaking process is not fit for purpose when it comes to regulating technology.

The former transport secretary, who is influential on the Labour Party’s soft left, commended the Government for announcing that generating sexual images without consent will be made illegal.

The use of Grok – an AI tool embedded into the social media platform X – to create sexually explicit content, including child sexual abuse, has prompted a wave of concern among ministers.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the criminal offence would be brought into force this week under the Data (Use and Access) Act passed by Parliament last year.

However, a spokesman for the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology said while the legal steps to introduce the offence were being made this week, it would not come into force until February.

The spokesman said: “The ban will come into force in early February, 21 days after being signed – as is standard practice.

“But platforms already have a legal duty to stop the proliferation of these images under the Online Safety Act.

“X doesn’t need to wait for the Ofcom investigation to conclude.”

Nudification apps will also be criminalised as part of the Crime and Policing Bill, which is currently going through Parliament, and it will become illegal for companies to supply tools to create non-consensual internet images.

Media watchdog Ofcom has meanwhile launched an investigation into whether X has breached UK law over reports that Grok had been used to create “undressed images”.

Ms Haigh told Radio 4’s Today programme: “These issues are a feature, they’re not a bug of Elon Musk’s Twitter.

“Elon Musk is ideologically committed to pushing the boundaries of free speech, and we’ve seen that from his reaction to the threats of the Ofcom investigation.

“He doesn’t believe in the kind of guardrails and safeguarding that the British public would expect online, and he takes a very different approach from AI companies like Google and OpenAI.

“So it’s right that we are really, really tough in our response, and I’m really pleased the Government has taken him on so roundly.”

She also warned the process for regulating the internet and new technologies has been too slow, as she recalled serving as a shadow minister in 2016 debating age verification technology which only recently came into force with the Online Safety Act.

Ms Haigh then said the law had already been made “irrelevant” by virtual private networks (VPNs).

She added: “I don’t think the way that we have legislated for hundreds of years in Parliament is fit for the challenges that AI is presenting.”

The former minister has been among the political figures urging the Government to abandon X because of how Grok is being used.

Downing Street said on Monday it was keeping its presence on the platform “under review”.

Neither Sir Keir Starmer’s official account, nor that of No 10 Downing Street, titled “UK Prime Minister” have posted on the site since last week.

Sir Keir issued a warning to Mr Musk’s X on Monday night, saying the social media site could lose the “right to self-regulate”.

On Tuesday morning, Home Office minister Alex Norris told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that ministers “abhor what we’ve seen on Grok”, but insisted the Ofcom probe should conclude before a ban is considered.

If X does not comply with UK rules under the Online Safety Act, the watchdog can issue a fine of up to 10% of its worldwide revenue or £18 million, and in extreme cases can get court approval to block the site.

Grok, developed by another company founded by Mr Musk called xAI, launched a new advanced image generation feature in July last year.

But its use for creating nude deepfake images has become widespread over the last few weeks.

Ofcom is investigating the platform to determine whether it has complied with its duty to protect people in the UK from illegal content.

Sir Ed Davey suggested he was “thinking about” whether it was worth leaving X, when asked at a press conference on Tuesday morning why he and his party had not yet done so having been such strident critics of Mr Musk.

He replied: “We have been thinking about it really hard. There’s a real balance to strike here. I think X does need a strong Liberal voice and I’m leader of the Liberal Democrats to give that voice.”

At that point, Sir Ed’s microphone fell off the podium he was stood behind.

When he picked it up, he could be heard to say he was “thinking about” the Lib Dems’ position on X, adding: “If I change my mind, I’ll come back to you.”

Shadow Home Office minister Matt Vickers meanwhile told the Press Association he saw a distinction between the people creating child abuse images on X with Grok, and the platform itself.

“They should be slammed, these awful paedophiles, horrendous people”, he said of those generating the images, but added: “The idea that you link this in with Twitter and find it as a way to shut down a platform that scrutinises Government, that allows people to have public debate, that exposes all sorts of controversies, that’s wrong. We should enable freedom of speech.”