Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
