Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these pictures 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 persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
