Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple instances have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
