Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused major anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by taking off their attire.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and sharing 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 acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
