Elon Musk's online network X has caused major outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by taking off their garments.
Numerous cases have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
