Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their garments.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of generating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
