Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
