Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by stripping their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
