Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread anger after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their garments.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of making inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
