Elon Musk's online platform X has caused major outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
