Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked widespread outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
