Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to give reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
