Elon Musk's social media network X has caused major backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
