Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked widespread backlash after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing images of persons in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
