Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by taking off their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create images and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
