Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their clothing.
Several cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
