Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of persons in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
