Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to give reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
