Grok AI deepfake victim says UK government should have acted faster | UK News

A Welsh presenter has said quicker action by the UK government could have prevented further victims of deepfake sexual images created by Grok AI.

Explicit images of Jess Davies were created using the chatbot and shared without her consent when the software was freely available to over half a billion users on X.

Davies has accused X owner Elon Musk of “monetising image abuse” after the platform said last week only paying users can now access Grok AI’s image function via its site.

The UK government said a new law will be brought into force this week to make such images created by AI illegal, despite legislation being ready since June 2025, after it was made a “priority offence”.

When approached for comment, X referred the to a statement where it said “anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content”.

Davies, who lives in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, condemned Grok AI in an X post on New Year’s Eve after seeing a rise in the number of non-consensual, intimate pictures posted on the site.

But after speaking out, she saw AI-generated images of herself had been created without her consent.

Davies said: “It’s awful to say that you become desensitised to seeing this graphic content all the time.

“But you still can’t really prepare yourself to have your consent removed from you like this, and the addition that it’s from total strangers who are anonymous online.”

This is not the first time she has been subjected to intimate image abuse, and has long advocated over strengthening the Online Safety Act, which is enforced by Ofcom to make the internet safer for people in the UK, especially children.

Grok is an AI chatbot which was developed by X, the social media site owned by Elon Musk.

It responds to X users’ prompts when they tag it in a post and is often used to give reaction or more context to other posters’ remarks, but people on X have also been able to edit an uploaded image through its AI image-editing feature.

While it launched in November 2023, there have been more recent reports that the chatbot was being used to create explicit images of people without their consent, which it then shares publicly on the platform.

While it is illegal to share intimate, non-consensual deepfakes of adults in the UK, until this week’s announcement it has not been a criminal offence to use an AI tool to create them despite legislation which passed in June 2025.

Deepfakes are videos, picture or audio clips made with artificial intelligence to look real.

The UK’s online regulator Ofcom has now launched an investigation to see if Grok AI has broken online safety laws, something Musk says is infringing freedom of speech.

Previously available to all users, X has now limited the use of the chatbot’s image function to those who pay a monthly fee, but it has been reported it is still possible to use the chatbot to create images for free via its app.

While Davies said the new law was a “positive”, campaigners and victims “have been waiting” for the last six months.

She said: “I don’t know why the government dragged their feet for so long.

“We already knew that the legislation was out and ready to go, and it would’ve protected victims.

“Think of how many victims are out there already from this.” She added that with quicker action “it might’ve been different”.

Davies said she was still able to create images of herself in lingerie and in a micro thong through the Grok app.

“It shouldn’t be generating these images,” she said.

“In terms of monetising it, I think it’s so offensive to all the victims.

“When it comes down to it, [Elon Musk] bought a social media platform and he is responsible for the safety of users.”

After speaking on Radio 4’s Women’s Hour earlier this month, Dr Daisy Dixon from Cardiff University said she had seen more non-consensual images of herself created, as well as death and rape threats.

The philosophy lecturer believes this is a “direct response” to speaking out about Grok AI and the announcement of the new law.

Dixon said: “I have seen a real escalation in what users are doing, a lot of people, a lot of men are getting really angry.

“I’m still seeing Grok generating images of myself.

“Being dressed in certain ways and being put in certain sexualised positions against our will, it feels like someone’s hijacked your sense of self-understanding.

“You’re essentially seeing yourself in these situations, and you feel like you don’t have control over how you present yourself online.”

Dixon, however, said her experience of using X was a wider reflection of attitudes towards women and girls online and “in society”.

“Because of this felt attack on freedom of speech, this is really stoking the fires of extreme misogyny that already existed,” she said.

“They’re basically attacking our entire digital existence – if we don’t like it, then we shouldn’t be posting it at all.

“We need to remember that this isn’t about X the platform, it is the users and we need to ask why so many men feel compelled to do this in the first place.”

On Monday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warned X could lose the “right to self regulate” if the platform cannot control its AI chatbot.

Liz Kendall, secretary of state for science, innovation and technology, said non-consensual intimate deepfakes created by Grok were illegal and an “affront to decent society”.

She said: “Lives can and have been devastated by this content, which is designed to harass, torment and violate people’s dignity. They are not harmless images; they are weapons of abuse disproportionately aimed at women and girls, and they are illegal.”