Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked major anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their garments.
Several examples have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests 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 able to edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
