Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple cases have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to give reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
