Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple cases have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
