Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Several instances have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making graphic material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
