Two senior members of the UK Cabinet have been subjected to AI-generated 'undressing', with images of them in revealing bikinis created and shared on Elon Musk's platform X without their consent.
How the AI-Generated Images Were Created
According to information seen by Metro, members of the public used prompts with the Grok AI chatbot, developed by Musk's xAI, to generate the fake pictures. The requests asked the AI to undress photographs of the politicians, leaving them depicted only in bikinis.
The process was alarmingly swift. In one instance, Grok produced and posted the fabricated image on X in under a minute. For the second minister, the entire process took just five minutes.
While the AI tool reportedly rejects prompts for fully nude images, it has been shown to comply with requests to 'remove her clothes' or 'put him in a jockstrap'. The two unnamed ministers are among hundreds of non-consensual, partially-naked images generated by the feature.
Government and Regulator Spring Into Action
A government source described the images as 'deeply disturbing' and welcomed swift regulatory action. The UK's communications regulator, Ofcom, has confirmed it is now in 'urgent talks' with both X and xAI regarding the feature.
In a statement on Monday night, Ofcom said it was 'aware of serious concerns raised about a feature on Grok on X that produces undressed images of people and sexualised images of children'.
The incident has drawn a sharp response from ministers. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall addressed the issue in the House of Commons on Tuesday, stating: 'What we have been seeing online in recent days has been absolutely appalling, and unacceptable in decent society.'
She emphasised that such content disproportionately targets women and girls and gave her full backing to Ofcom to take any necessary enforcement action.
Legal Repercussions and Platform Responsibility
This case falls squarely under the UK's Online Safety Act (OSA). The law makes it illegal to create or share intimate, sexually explicit images without consent, including AI-generated material. It also designates intimate image abuse and cyberflashing as priority offences.
This places a legal duty on social media platforms to prevent such content from appearing and to remove it swiftly if it does. Failure to comply can result in substantial fines from Ofcom.
A Government spokesperson reiterated their stance: 'Sexually explicit deepfakes created without consent are degrading and harmful. We refuse to tolerate the Violence Against Women and Girls that stains our society.'
Elon Musk has defended X's position, stating on the platform on January 3, 2026: 'Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.' X's own statement echoed this, outlining its policies against illegal content, including permanent account suspensions.
However, the rapid generation and dissemination of these deepfakes have raised serious questions about the effectiveness of current safeguards and the urgent need for robust enforcement of the new online safety laws.
