Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by removing their clothing.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create images and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
