Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked major anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by removing their attire.
Numerous examples have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
