Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant backlash after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to give commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for permitting users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
