Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked major backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Numerous cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
