Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked significant backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of generating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
