Elon Musk's social media network X has caused significant outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing images of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
