Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked major outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to provide reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
