Elon Musk's social media network X has caused major backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by removing their garments.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
