Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple instances have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for enabling users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
