Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked major outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for enabling users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
