🔗 Share this article

Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked significant anger after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their clothing.

Several examples have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.

Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and heavy fines".

"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a post.

It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.

History of Controversy and Rules

The system has been faulted for allowing users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of celebrities.

"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a graphic way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.

It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.