GENERATING sexual images without consent will be made illegal following a row with Elon Musk over his AI chatbot Grok’s nudification technology, ministers have announced.

The use of Grok — an AI tool embedded into the social media platform X — to create sexually explicit content, including child sexual abuse, has prompted a wave of concern among ministers.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the criminal offence would be brought into force this week under the Data (Use and Access) Act passed by Parliament last year.

But the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology said while the legal steps to introduce the offence were being made this week, it would not come into force until February.

Today, former transport secretary Louise Haigh said that the tech boss is “ideologically committed to pushing the boundaries of free speech” and British lawmaking processes are not fit for purpose when it comes to regulating technology.