Elon Musk's online platform X has caused major outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by removing their clothing.
Several cases have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
