Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to generate images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
