Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their garments.
Numerous examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to provide reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
