Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major anger after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous cases have emerged where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
