UK to bring into force law this week to tackle Grok AI deepfakes
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq845glnvl1o
Posted by MGC91
UK to bring into force law this week to tackle Grok AI deepfakes
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq845glnvl1o
Posted by MGC91
48 Comments
I expect this news will bring out a flurry of people on social media (predominantly X) claiming it’s an attack on Freedom of Speech.
The new law will make it illegal to create non-consensual intimate images so I really can’t see how anyone can actually claim that.
> the law would make it illegal for companies to supply the tools designed to create such images
A more accurate description of the law than the slightly misleading headline here.
I guess this means that Stable Diffusion is finally being banned, though I wonder how they’re going to do that since it’s open source software?
Also we should be looking to ban possession of these images too, not just creation.
While I agree with the intention, deepfakes without consent of anyone should be illegal, it’s slightly nerve wracking to think they’re going to draft and implement this law in a week. I hope they get it right.
Oooh this is going to be fun. Get your popcorn ready.
I agree with the intention. Will need to wait for the full text
Such a poorly written article at the start the BBC says
“law which will make it illegal to create non-consensual intimate images”
Which is already illegal under Online Safety Act 2023
Then says
“law would make it illegal for companies to supply the tools designed to create such images”
Which are two completely different things
Disgusting. You can’t even supply people with the means to make child pornography any more without this tyrannical government stopping you. It’s like being in 1984.
> make it illegal for companies to supply the tools designed to create such images.
Anyone with an AMD or Nvidia gpu can create these images. Guess we will have to ban consumer graphics cards then.
“The Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the law would make it illegal for companies to supply the tools designed to create such images.”
Oh wow. No more Photoshop (or any image editing program) or even cameras for you – I wonder if they’ll do a smartphone amnesty.
Honestly, who is this Liz Kendall? And why is somebody so obviously technologically inept actually the “Technology Secretary”?
We have laws against the distribution and production of CSAM. Simply enforce the law.
Media have been experts at finding an angle to make everything look like a Labour fuck up.
Will be interesting to see how they spin trying to stop deep fakes and child pornography as a bad thing…
Elon will react to this with his trademark pragmatism and restraint, I’m sure.
Good in theory but the internet spans across the planet and you’ll never squish it completely.
Will likely make no difference.
Same with the Online Safety Act.
Finally some regulation on irresponsible “AI” companies? Never thought I’d see the day. Now do more, tackle the copyright problems, the job losses and subsequent funnelling of national wealth to American tech companies.
> The Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the law would make it illegal for companies to supply the tools designed to create such images
Wait, what. Z-image base was only just about to be released.
This is irritatingly going to hurt those of us who aren’t using it to create images of real people without consent.
The only way they can enforce this is with a blanket ban on all ai image generation models.
Bit of a rubbish write-up in this article
The non-consensual intimate images law is already part of the Online Safety Act, it just hadn’t been brought into force yet.
The one about supplying tools to create intimate images of people is not general apps, it is for tools specifically designed to perform those actions, so not things like photoshop, at least that is what the Tech Secretary said in Parliament.
I’m in favour of doing something about deepfakes but I’m nervous about what they’re packaging alongside this law seeing as they did similar with the OSA.
“the law would make it illegal for companies to supply the tools designed to create such images”
So this is going to ban literally any gen ai tool? What about Photoshop which has AI tools built in that could be used for the same purpose?
I’m rather worried with the technical knowledge of this parliament drafting such legislation in a week is going to be so badly written it basically bans everything.
Would this be emergency legislation or something they already passed?
This should be a wake up call to people. Stop putting pictures of yourself and your love ones everywhere.
“law would make it illegal for companies to supply the tools designed to create such images”
Will this include pens and pencils?
Curious how this would be enforced with something like Grok on X where it’s a publicly visible promp that the machine spits out for the public to see, technically whoever made the promp can’t predict what the result will be if it’s something innocuous.
You’d probably have to just ban it from operating in the open and make the choice of publishing an image at the discretion of the user.
Before AI there was Adobe Photoshop… are they banning that as well?
I cant help feel this is more aimed at making Elon Musks life more difficult than actually trying to fix the underlying issue.
Hoping the law is specifically about publishing or showing people such deep fakes.
I really don’t care if someone makes AI porn and jerks off to it in private.
So photoshop will be banned then? This is poorly written law being rushed through because Labour have finally found something to pin on Musk, despite almost all other AI tools having the exact same capabilities.
>The Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the law would make it illegal for companies to supply the tools designed to create such images.
Will that make it illegal for Stability AI to supply Stable Diffusion for download? Or likewise for Github?
Or for Adobe to supply photoshop?
***
The devil will be in the detail, but I strongly suspect this will just be yet more badly written legislation written by technologically illiterate dinosaurs (like the OSA) made worse by the fact that this is knee-jerk legislation.
Just watch, this will be used as ammunition to pass the “scan every image and message you send” thing.
Grok should be dealt with, but it only serves as a stepping stone to destroy our privacy further.
I support this law.
However, I am amazed at how quickly the UK government can decide to make laws for things like this, whilst allowing corporate tax avoidance etc to run rampant.
They can clearly change the law very quickly when they want to…
Too soft. They should’ve banned X instead, yet I’m willing to bet the reason why this isn’t instead proposed is because MP’s are too addicted themselves to it.
Even if the move is more to kickstart our extrication from US-dominant media (which we’ve seen is being used to foment social division that furthers US political meddling), I welcome it. I feel that the suggestions that this move is an attack on free speech proves it’s not really about free speech but about the US being upset it can’t meddle as easily.
Thought this was illegal already. …But nope…guess they were already just blocking all those deepfake porn sites for kicks n funtimes and not because they were illegal.
“a law which will make it illegal to create non-consensual intimate images”
This was already possible with Photoshop since years, why was there no law before?
Interesting how quick and effective the government can be when they actually want to do something.
Great if it’s made illegal, but will police actually enforce this law? Even when evidence is abundant. Highly unlikely.
Not just grok though in it…people already have shown Gemini and others do the same crap.
The fact you need a law to deal with this is incredible. The social media platforms should have been dealing with this.
This is the right outcome. As long as the law is well written… which is always a big ask as politicians are borderline tech illiterate. Anyway, right outcome so far.
This will be framed by Musk and co as a gross infringement of ‘free speech’.
But all he had to do was block CSAM from being generated, or to allow ‘nudify’ tools.
You would think that a robust filter system would be no problem for Grok…
What are the chances that hastily written legislation makes photoshop and MS Paint illegal?
No punitive action for the company actually creating these images (that are illegal under current legislation)?
Bit weird and pathetic that they won’t do that, especially given how hands on he’s been with Grok tweaking.
God damn this comment section is a travesty, go read the article you lazy bums!
> It is currently illegal to share deepfakes of adults in the UK, but legislation in the Data (Use and Access) Act which would make it a criminal offence to create or request them has not been enforced until now, despite passing in June 2025.
Don’t get me started on now they want to ban the tools. These people were talking about being AI forward a year ago, and now they’re trying to destroy an industry which is going to encapsulate the next century by kneecapping anyone trying to utilize them.
“Kier Starmer hates free speech so much he’s banning citizens from producing child pornography using AI” should be the headline
There’s other AIs that can do this, it isn’t about protecting people from deep fakes, its about silencing opposing political opinions.
Its very interesting how quickly we’ve gone from outrage over the fairly silly and loose statements from the government that anyone who is against the OSA is a pervert or a pedo.
To now so many people insisting that actually using an AI to produce revenge and child porn online is free speech and any government effort to control this is basically 1984.
I guess I can’t use AI to generate an image of Donald Trump fellating Vladimir Putin then 😥
‘Ohh freedom of speech’
Meanwhile my cousin had to hand over 5 years of social media history to visit New York over Xmas..
I swear this is already illegal. It was made illegal last year.
What I want to know is why their local officers have not already been arrested ?