Elon Musk's online platform X has caused major outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their garments.
Several examples have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms 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 relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
