Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major anger after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
