Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked significant outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple cases have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to provide reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
