Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Several cases have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
