Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked significant backlash after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their attire.
Several instances have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
