X has continued to allow users to post highly sexualised videos of women in bikinis generated by its AI tool Grok, despite the company’s claim to have cracked down on misuse. The Guardian was able to create short videos of people stripping to bikinis from photographs of fully clothed, real women, and post this content on X’s public platform without any sign of moderation.
After weeks of rising public concern, X said on Wednesday it had “implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis”. However, The Guardian found that the standalone version of Grok, known as Grok Imagine, was still responding to prompts to digitally remove clothes from images of women, creating sexually provocative striptease videos.
Rebecca Hitchen, head of policy and campaigns at the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said such a simple workaround should not be possible. “The continued ease of access to sophisticated nudification tools clearly demonstrates that X isn’t taking the issue of online violence against women and girls seriously enough,” she said. Penny East, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, added: “It’s hard to believe that xAI and Elon Musk can’t work out how to prevent these images from being spewed out by Grok.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer demanded X act without delay, saying: “Free speech is not the freedom to violate consent. Young women’s images are not public property, and their safety is not up for debate.” Ofcom said its formal investigation into X, launched on Monday, remained ongoing. Canada’s privacy watchdog said it was investigating xAI, while authorities in the Philippines said they were moving to block Grok, with Malaysian authorities planning legal action.
