Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked widespread anger after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
