Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread anger after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by stripping their garments.
Several examples have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
