Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
