Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked significant anger after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple instances have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to create images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
