Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked major outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to give reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
