Elon Musk's online platform X has caused major outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Several examples have emerged where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to give commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
