Elon Musk's online platform X has caused major outrage after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by taking off their garments.
Multiple examples have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
