Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread backlash after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
