Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked widespread backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their attire.
Multiple examples have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
