Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused widespread anger after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous examples have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
