Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their garments.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
