Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by removing their garments.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
