Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to give reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
