Elon Musk's online network X has caused major outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by removing their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
