Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
