Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous examples have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of generating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
