Elon Musk's online network X has sparked major backlash after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
