Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread anger after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Several instances have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
