JD Vance, the US vice-president, has agreed that it is “entirely unacceptable” for platforms such as X to allow the proliferation of AI-generated sexualised images of women and children, David Lammy has told the Guardian.
The deputy prime minister said Vance, usually known as an AI enthusiast, expressed concern about how the technology was being used to fuel “hyper-pornographied slop” online when they met in Washington on Thursday.
The comments come amid a growing transatlantic row over the use of X’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, to manipulate thousands of images of women and sometimes children to remove their clothing or put them in sexual positions.
Keir Starmer, the prime minister, has warned that the social media platform could be blocked in the UK after “unlawful” and “disgusting” images were generated.
Supporters of the US president, Donald Trump, including the congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, have called for sanctions against the UK if it goes through with a ban. Elon Musk, the owner of X, wrote on the platform on Friday that the UK government “want any excuse for censorship” and described the British government as “fascist”.
Lammy said he addressed use of Grok with Vance and found vice-president ‘sympathetic’ to UK’s position. Photograph: Kin Cheung/AP
In an interview with the Guardian, Lammy said he addressed the use of Grok with Vance and found the vice-president “sympathetic” to the UK’s position.
“We discussed Greenland and I also raised with him the Grok issue and the horrendous, horrific situation in which this new technology is allowing deepfakes and the manipulation of images of women and children, which is just absolutely abhorrent. He agreed with me that it was entirely unacceptable,” Lammy said on Friday.
Asked if Vance was sympathetic to the UK government’s stance on Grok, Lammy said: “I think he recognised the very seriousness with which images of women and children could be manipulated in this way, and he recognised how despicable, unacceptable, that is and I found him sympathetic to that position. And in fact, we’ve been in touch again, today, about this very serious issue.”
“He confirmed with me that he had seen that there had been some changes announced by X as of this morning.”
On Friday, X appeared to have changed Grok’s settings, with the chatbot telling users that only paid subscribers could ask it to manipulate images.
Congresswoman and Trump supporter Anna Paulina Luna has called for sanctions against the UK if it goes through with a ban on X. Photograph: Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock
However, reports suggested this only applied to those making requests in reply to other posts, and other ways of editing or creating images, including on a separate Grok website, remained open.
Vance also expressed concerns about the use of AI technology, adding that it was being used to fuel “hyper-pornographied slop”, sources at the meeting said.
Liz Kendall, the technology secretary, has said she would back the media regulator Ofcom if it decided ban X if it failed to comply with UK laws. “Sexually manipulating images of women and children is despicable and abhorrent,” she said. The media watchdog, Ofcom, confirmed it would accelerate an investigation into X.
Musk responded by sharing a post from US legislator Luna threatening to issue sanctions against Keir Starmer and the UK if X was blocked in the country.
Lammy and Vance met at a particularly sensitive time for US-UK relations after Trump repeated his claims to Greenland following a US operation to capture the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro.
Liz Kendall, the technology secretary, has said she would back the media regulator, Ofcom, if it decided to ban X. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA
Starmer, and other European leaders, issued a statement on Tuesday warning the Danish-held territory’s security must be ensured collectively by Nato.
Lammy said he and Vance discussed the war in Ukraine, including “giving the Ukrainians the security guarantees that they require” and the “emerging situation in Venezuela”, as well as tensions over Greenland.
International laws and codes are under “tremendous strain”, Lammy said.
“We’re realists, and must accept that we’re now living in a multipolar world. It’s a world no longer where there’s just one superpower and the members of the [UN] security council. And so, of course, the rule of law is under tremendous strain. And we lose it, it seems to me, at our peril,” he said.
Lammy, the former foreign secretary, has developed a friendship with Vance. Last year, the vice-president and his family stayed with his counterpart during a holiday last summer, culminating in an unlicensed fishing trip in Chevening, Kent.
Last summer, the vice-president stayed with his counterpart during a holiday, culminating in an unlicensed fishing trip in Chevening, Kent. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters
The two men were said to have bonded over their difficult upbringings as well as their faith, with Lammy attending Mass in Washington at the vice-president’s invitation in March 2025.
Lammy was shuffled out of the Foreign Office in September to become justice secretary and deputy prime minister after the resignation of Angela Rayner.
In his role as the minister in charge of the justice system, Lammy is preparing to confirm sweeping changes to the British courts which would results in the cancellation of thousands of jury trials. The move has put him on a collision course with rebel MPs who have criticised the move.
Karl Turner, the MP for Kingston upon Hull East, told Times Radio that members of the parliamentary Labour party (PLP) were “seething” with Starmer and Lammy over the policy, and said the prime minister “ought to be ashamed of himself”.
“I’ve said to the prime minister I want to see him face-to-face on this single issue and I expect him to instruct Lammy to stop and think again,” Turner, a former criminal barrister, said.
