Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked major outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
