Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked widespread backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
