Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their garments.
Numerous examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
