Elon Musk's social media network X has caused significant outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous examples have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
