Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked widespread backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
