Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant backlash after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to give reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of generating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
