Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused widespread backlash after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
