Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked significant anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by removing their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
