Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to generate pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
