Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant backlash after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to generate images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
