Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread backlash after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
