Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their attire.
Numerous instances have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to generate images and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
