Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused major anger after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous examples have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
