Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked significant backlash after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
