Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused significant backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by stripping their attire.
Multiple instances have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
