Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by stripping their garments.
Several cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
