Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
