Britain’s media regulator, Ofcom, said on Monday that it would investigate whether X had failed to comply with UK law over the sexual images.
If found to have broken the law, Ofcom could issue X with a fine of up to 10% of its worldwide revenue or £18 million, whichever is greater.
And if X does not comply, Ofcom could seek a court order to force internet service providers to block access to the site in the UK altogether.
Sir Keir warned X could lose the “right to self regulate” amid a backlash over the AI images, but later in the week said he welcomed reports that X was taking action to address the issue.
The prime minister said he would “take the necessary measures” and strengthen legislation if X failed to act.
He had previously condemned the images created by the tool as “disgusting and shameful”, and said the decision to “turn this into a premium service is horrific”.
X later said the changes to Grok would apply to “all users, including paid subscribers”.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said on Wednesday: “This material, which depicts women and children in nude and sexually explicit situations, has been used to harass people across the internet.”
Policy researcher Riana Pfefferkorn said she is surprised X took so long to deploy the new Grok safeguards and that the editing features should have been removed as soon as the abuse began.
Questions remain on how X will enforce its new policies, such as how the AI model will know if an image is of a real person and what actions it will take when users break the rules, said Pfefferkorn.
Musk has not presented the company in a serious light either, she said, adding that it would help if he stopped “doing things like re-posting an AI image of Keir Starmer in a bikini.”