Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
