Elon Musk's online network X has caused major anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by removing their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
