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Social media platform X is under pressure after reports that its AI chatbot Grok has allowed users to create sexual images of women and children.
Images are being generated by X’s AI tool Grok, which manipulates photos of real people, often removing their clothes or making them pose in suggestive ways.
Elon Musk’s platform is under heavy scrutiny worldwide, including from the UK government. Here’s what you need to know.
How did the controversy begin?
A significant number of X users started reporting examples of Grok altering images to sexualise real women and children towards the end of December and into the new year.
On public X posts that include photos, users can comment asking Grok to edit the image however they want.
Grok can also be used to create images privately. Last summer, a so-called “spicy mode” was introduced, specifically aimed at helping users generate sexually explicit images.
AI bots have safety features designed to reject inappropriate prompts, but reports suggest Grok has been failing to deny users who are in breach of its own rules.
It is not known for how long Grok has allowed real photos of people to be sexualised, but the problem had become widespread by early January, with users able to generate images by using requests such as: “Put her in a transparent bikini.”
An investigation by Reuters news agency found that over a single 10-minute period on 2 January, X users asked Grok to digitally edit photographs of people so that they would appear to be wearing bikinis at least 102 times.
It said the majority of those targeted were young women, but in a few cases, they were men, sometimes celebrities and politicians.
On the same day, X boss Elon Musk posted laugh-cry emojis in response to AI edits of famous people – including himself – in bikinis. He responded with the same emoji when one X user said their social media feed resembled a bar packed with bikini-clad women.
How has the UK government reacted?
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been critical of X over the images, calling the exploitation of Grok “absolutely disgusting and shameful”.
“If X cannot control Grok, we will – and we’ll do it fast because if you profit from harm and abuse, you lose the right to self-regulate,” he told a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on 12 January.
“Protecting their abusive users, rather than the women and children who are being abused, shows a total distortion of priorities.
“So let me be crystal clear, we won’t stand for it, because no matter how unstable or complex the world becomes, this government will be guided by its values. We’ll stand up for the vulnerable against the powerful.”
His technology secretary Liz Kendall has moved forward a bill to make the creation of non-consensual intimate images with AI a criminal offence.
The Data (Use and Access) Act was passed last year, with sections of the act being implemented slowly.
But Ms Kendall said the section making it a criminal offence to create or request the creation of non-consensual intimate images will be brought forward to this week.
The Crime and Policing Bill, which is going through parliament, will make it a criminal offence for companies to supply tools designed to create non-consensual internet images.
Ms Kendall said this would be “targeting the problem at its source”.
Additionally, media watchdog Ofcom has launched a formal investigation into Grok, including whether X has “failed to comply with its legal obligations under the Online Safety Act”.
X and Grok face global condemnation
Ministers in France reported X to prosecutors and regulators on 2 January, saying the “sexual and sexist content” was “manifestly illegal”.
Officials in other European countries, including Germany, Italy and Sweden, have also condemned X.
On 5 January, European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said it was “well aware” that Grok was being used for “explicit sexual content with some output generated with child-like images”.
“This is not spicy. This is illegal. This is appalling. This is disgusting. This is how we see it, and this has no place in Europe. This is not the first time that Grok is generating such output,” he said.
India’s government then accused Grok of “gross misuse” of AI and serious failures in its safeguarding, and handed it a 72-hour deadline to remove all inappropriate content, or risk bigger legal problems.
An update has not been provided by the Indian government.
The Malaysian government announced it was temporarily blocking X on 11 January, citing “repeated misuse” of the tool to generate “obscene, sexually explicit, indecent, grossly offensive, and non-consensual manipulated images”.
Grok’s generated content could also face investigations in Australia and Brazil, according to officials.
How has X responded?
The developer of Grok and X’s parent company, xAI, has said it has put restrictions in place that mean only paid subscribers are able to use image generation and editing features on the platform.
X says it takes action against illegal content on the platform, including child sexual abuse material, by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary.
Mr Musk also added that anyone using Grok to make illegal content would suffer the same consequences as if they uploaded illegal content.
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However, in response to ministers’ threats that X could be banned in the UK if it did not act on concerns about its AI chatbot, the billionaire tech mogul accused the UK government of being “fascist” and trying to curb free speech.
Responding to a post on X claiming the UK arrests more people for social media posts than “any other country on Earth,” Mr Musk wrote: “Real fascism is arresting thousands of people for social media posts.”
Why is X being singled out?
Mr Musk has hit back at critics of Grok, saying they “want any excuse for censorship” and sharing a post which suggested “millions” of other apps can make sexualised images of people.
AI technology that can digitally undress people has been around for years, but until recently was less accessible.
They also typically required a certain level of effort or payment.
Experts say Grok’s technology and easy interface have lowered the barrier to entry, and many of its generated images are instantly made public.
Three experts who have followed the development of X’s policies around AI-generated explicit content told Reuters that the company had ignored warnings from civil society and child safety groups, including a letter sent last year warning that xAI was only one small step away from unleashing “a torrent of obviously nonconsensual deepfakes.”
Tyler Johnston, the executive director of The Midas Project, an AI watchdog group that was among the letter’s signatories, said: “In August, we warned that xAI’s image generation was essentially a nudification tool waiting to be weaponised.
“That’s basically what’s played out.”
Dani Pinter, the chief legal officer at the US’s National Centre on Sexual Exploitation, said X failed to pull abusive images from its AI training material and should have banned users requesting illegal content.
“This was an entirely predictable and avoidable atrocity,” Ms Pinter said.
