Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
