Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
