Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked widespread backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Several examples have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
