Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
