Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by removing their garments.
Multiple examples have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
