Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple instances have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of persons in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
