Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked widespread backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
