Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major anger after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the tool 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 Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
