Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
