Elon Musk's online network X has caused major outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
