Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by stripping their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to give reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
