Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to produce pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
