Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked widespread outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous examples have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to provide reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
