Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused significant outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by removing their garments.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
