Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Several instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
