A major test of AI regulation is on the horizon, as the United Kingdom assesses Grok to figure out if Elon Musk has finally gone too far

In what is becoming one of the first major tests of whether a major economy will take a first step toward reining in an AI company, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to “take action” against Elon Musk’s X over its AI tool Grok producing sexualized images of children.

Speaking on Thursday, the UK premier called the images “unlawful” and urged the social media platform to “get their act together and get this material down,” as public outrage mounts over Grok generating explicit deepfakes on X.

Starmer has said that he supports a potential intervention by Ofcom, the UK’s primary authority media regulator, with government sources telling BBC News, “We would expect Ofcom to use all powers at its disposal in regard to Grok & X.”

According to a third-party analysis published this week, X is seeing thousands of instances of images occurring each hour where people have been nonconsensually undressed by its AI tool. The UK’s Internet Watch Foundation has also reported finding “sexualized” images of children created on the site.

X has attempted to walk things back by making the tools available to only paid subscribers, but turning the technology into a premium service has not exactly been a satisfactory solution when the ultimate problem is that the tech is producing the images in the first place.

The Takeaway

Whether X will now be banned in the country has been brought into question. Prediction markets* have certainly been showing a steady increase in the implied probability that Grok may be banned by the United Kingdom. On Friday, traders were pegging the chance of a Grok ban before March 1, 2026, at one in four, nearly double the odds two days before.