Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked widespread anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their garments.
Multiple instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
