Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked significant outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
