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Woman's Hour

Grok AI, Girls' sporting aspirations, Going it Alone, Child Custody

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.13K Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2026

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Technology Secretary Liz Kendall has demanded urgent action from Elon Musk’s platform X, after it was found that its AI chatbot Grok is being used to create non consensual sexualised images of women and girls. The BBC has seen multiple examples on X of people asking the bot to digitally undress people to make them appear in bikinis without their consent, as well as putting them in sexual situations. The BBC's technology reporter Laura Cress joins Nuala McGovern along with Dr Daisy Dixon, lecturer at Cardiff University, who's online photographs have been sexualised through AI.

In our series Going it Alone we hear from three women about their experiences of having a child without a partner. These are women who are having donor conceived children, which is different to single mums who may have split up with the child’s father. Statistics show that more women than ever in the UK are choosing to become solo mums by choice. Emily had her son Kim in the 1990's, and both join reporter Jo Morris to talk about Emily's decision to go solo and how it's impacted both of their lives 30 years on.

2025 was a great year for women’s sport — from the Lionesses successfully defending their Euros title and the Red Roses winning the Rugby World Cup on home soil, to the Netball Super League’s incredible growth. But despite that record visibility, there has been a sharp and deeply concerning collapse in girls’ sporting aspirations. That's according to new research from the charity Women in Sport which shows that just 23% of girls aged 13–24 now dream of reaching the top spots in sport, down from 38% the year before. Nuala talks to Steph Hilborne, CEO of Women in Sport, and Ceylon Andi Hickman, Deputy CEO, Football Beyond Borders, an education and social inclusion charity that uses the power of football to change the lives of young people.

For more than a century, children have been moved between homes because of legal decisions that decided their fate. Yet child custody is curiously absent from history books according to Lara Fiegel, Professor of Modern Literature and Culture at King’s College London. Her new book, Custody: The Secret History of Mothers, examines what she describes as an often-fraught, complex territory. Drawing on thousands of cases not only in the UK but also Europe and North America, Lara says she is offering a new interpretation of how it evolved.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Dianne McGregor

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts.

0:05.7

Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, The Traitors Uncloaked.

0:12.7

But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's Saturday bonus episodes,

0:18.2

The Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Rylan, and comedy specials

0:22.2

from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffel and Rommashranganathan.

0:26.0

However, and maybe I'm biased, it's really all about the traitors uncoaked.

0:30.3

So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds.

0:35.5

Hello, this is Neula McGovern, and you're listening to The Woman's Hour podcast.

0:40.1

Hello and welcome to the programme.

0:41.8

Well, there are calls by the technology secretary, among others, for tougher action against Elon Musk's social media platform X.

0:49.9

It comes after dozens of sexually explicit images were generated by Grok.

0:53.9

That's its artificial intelligence chatbot following requests or prompts by users.

0:59.2

We're going to explain all about it this hour.

1:02.2

Also, 2025 was seen as a fabulous year of women's sport with record attendance and interest.

1:08.2

But a new report out today shows girls' dreams to reach the top spots have plummeted.

1:13.2

That's despite the growing visibility of elite women's sports.

1:16.4

We're going to discuss why that might be and also what could turn it around.

1:21.1

And I'm wondering, does your home include a girl or a young woman who is striving to be the next Chloe Kelly or perhaps Ellie Kildon,

1:29.0

well, tell us about her.

1:30.8

Or, sadly, have you seen her dream die for some reason?

1:34.5

And what was it?

1:35.7

What do you think could help those dreams ignite?

...

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