Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused significant backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their garments.
Multiple cases have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
