Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked significant outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their attire.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
