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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has slammed Elon Musk’s social media platform X for failing to meet community standards, declaring its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok is enabling abhorrent sexual images without consent of the people depicted.
With his remarks, Albanese joined an international chorus of leaders pledging to take action against so-called nudify sites as the government’s social media watchdog launched an investigation.
Anthony Albanese says the government backs a crackdown on the use of AI to generate sexual images without consent. Credit: AAPIMAGE
“The fact that this tool was used so that people were using its image creation function through Grok is, I think, just completely abhorrent,” Albanese said on Saturday.
“It, once again, is an example of social media not showing social responsibility and Australians and indeed, global citizens deserve better.”
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley echoed Albanese’s criticism on AI platforms and pledged her support for the government to crack down on images generated without consent.
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“It is totally unacceptable and it needs the strongest possible response, and we support any efforts to deliver that strongest possible response,” Ley said on Saturday.
The European Commission, the EU’s enforcement body, has said it investigating nudify services and many countries including the UK, Sweden, Italy, France, Malaysia and India have issued warnings for AI companies to stop the creation of sexual images without consent.
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant on Friday announced she would investigate the surge in sexually explicit images, which related to adults and children. She said companies had the capability to prevent misuse of their products and they must put a stop to the creation of sexual images without consent.
Inman Grant clashed with Musk last year when eSafety demanded that X remove graphic footage of a church stabbing in Sydney, arguing that global removal was necessary because Australians could use VPNs to access the content. The case was abandoned.
X said in a statement last week that it took action “action against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary”.
Musk also issued a post, which said anyone using Grok to make illegal content “will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content”.
However, following this statement and the threatened crackdown in the UK, Musk has commented and reposted several messages on his platform in the past day that criticised UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and claimed he was censoring free speech, including one that noted Grok currently ranked as the country’s most popular app.
UK Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said on Friday she would endorse her country’s regulator if it banned X from her country.
“I would remind xAI that the Online Safety Act Includes the power to block services from being accessed in the UK, if they refuse to comply with UK law. If Ofcom decide to use those powers they will have our full support,” Kendall said.
Previously, Starmer on Thursday described the images as unlawful and intolerable and said his government would take action.
Researchers at AI Forensics, a European non-profit organisation, examined 20,000 images generated by Grok between December 25 and January 1 and found that 53 per cent contained individuals in minimal attire. Of those depicted, 81 per cent were women and 2 per cent appeared to be 18 years old or younger.
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The researchers also identified Nazi and ISIS propaganda material generated by Grok.
In Australia, new codes come into force on March 9 to compel AI services, among others, to limit children’s access to sexually explicit content, as well as violent material and themes related to self-harm and suicide.
These regulations follow the eSafety Commission’s enforcement action against a UK-based company that offered two widely used nudify services that allowed its users to manipulate photos of real people.
These services had attracted about 100,000 visitors a month in Australia, and eSafety said they had been used to generate explicit deepfake images of students in Australian schools. The sites were withdrawn from Australia in November after an official warning from eSafety.
Opposition communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh said on Saturday that no moves to tackle nudify services had been taken seen since September and demanded the government take swift action.
“The government needs to act on this now; the time for talk, empty promises and premature PR tours is over,” McIntosh said.
The European Commission has ordered X to retain all documents relating to Grok while the bloc ensures compliance with its rules after condemning it for producing sexualised images. The Italian regulator is working with the Data Protection Commission – the lead EU privacy authority for X, which has a base in Ireland – and reserved the right to take further action. Sweden said AI-generated images were unacceptable after the country’s deputy prime minister was targeted by a Grok user’s prompt this week.
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