Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their garments.
Numerous examples have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for permitting users to create images and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
