Musk ‘ideologically committed’ to pushing free speech boundaries – Louise Haigh
The government was right to be “harsh” in opposing Elon Musk over his AI chatbot Grok’s denuding technology, a former Labor minister has said.
Louise Haigh said the tech mogul was “ideologically committed to pushing the boundaries of freedom of expression” and warned that British lawmaking was not fit for purpose when it came to regulating technology.
The former transport secretary, who is influential on Labour’s soft left, praised the Government for announcing it would make it illegal to create sexual images without consent.
The use of Grok, an artificial intelligence tool built into social media platform
Technology Minister Liz Kendall said the criminal offense would come into force this week under the Data (Use and Access) Act passed by Parliament last year.
However, a Department of Science, Innovation and Technology spokesman said legal steps to implement the offense had been taken this week but would not come into force until February.
The spokesman said: “The ban will come into force at the beginning of February, 21 days after it is signed, as is standard practice.
“But platforms already have a legal duty under the Online Safety Act to stop the spread of these images.
“X does not need to wait for the Ofcom investigation to conclude.”
Nudification practices will also be criminalized under the Crime and Policing Bill currently going through Parliament, making it illegal for companies to provide tools to create non-consensual internet images.
Meanwhile, media watchdog Ofcom has launched an investigation into whether X breached UK law over reports that Grok was used to create “nude images”.
Ms Haigh told Radio 4’s Today programme: “These issues are a feature, not a bug of Elon Musk’s Twitter.
“Elon Musk is ideologically committed to pushing the boundaries of freedom of expression, and we saw this in his response to the threats of the Ofcom investigation.
“He does not believe in the kind of guardrails and protections that the British public would expect online and takes a very different approach to AI companies such as Google and OpenAI.
“So it is true that we have been very harsh indeed in our response and I am really pleased that the Government has addressed it so directly.”
He also warned that the process of regulating the internet and new technologies was too slow, as he said he served as a shadow minister in 2016 and discussed the Online Safety Act and the recently introduced age verification technology.
Ms Haigh later said the law had already been made “irrelevant” by virtual private networks (VPNs).
He added: “I don’t think the way we’ve been legislating in Parliament for hundreds of years is suited to the challenges posed by artificial intelligence.”
The former minister was among political figures who called on the Government to abandon X because of the way Grok is used.
Downing Street said on Monday it was keeping its presence on the platform “under review”.
Neither Sir Keir Starmer’s official account nor Downing Street No 10’s official account titled “British Prime Minister” has been posting on the site since last week.
No 10 did not say whether the Prime Minister had consciously stopped posting on the site, telling reporters on Tuesday that Sir Keir used “a variety of different channels to talk to and engage with people in the UK”.
Sir Keir issued a warning to Mr Musk’s X on Monday night, saying the social media site could lose its “right to self-regulate”.
On Tuesday morning, Home Secretary Alex Norris told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that ministers “hated what we saw at Grok” but insisted the Ofcom investigation must conclude before a ban is considered.
If
Developed by another company called xAI, founded by Mr. Musk, Grok launched a new advanced rendering feature in July last year.
However, its use to create nude deepfake images has become widespread in the last few weeks.
Ofcom is investigating to determine whether the platform complies with its duty to protect people in the UK from illegal content.
Asked at a press conference on Tuesday morning why he and his party had not yet done so despite being so harshly critical of Mr Musk, Sir Ed Davey said he was “considering” whether it would be worth leaving X.
He replied: “We’ve thought really hard about this. There’s a real balance to be struck here. I think X needs a strong Liberal voice and I’m the leader of the Liberal Democrats to give that voice.”
Meanwhile, Sir Ed’s microphone fell off the podium he was standing behind.
When he picked up the paper he was heard saying he was “considering” the Liberal Democrats’ position on X, adding: “If I change my mind, I’ll get back to you.”
Meanwhile, Shadow Home Office minister Matt Vickers told the Press Association that he saw a distinction between Grok and people creating child abuse images on X and the platform itself.
“These terrible pedophiles, terrible people must be punished,” he said of those who produced the images, but added: “The idea that you can tie this to Twitter and see it as a way of shutting down a platform that scrutinizes the Government, that allows people to have public debate, that exposes all kinds of debate, is wrong. We have to enable freedom of expression.”
