Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple examples have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
