Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused significant outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by taking off their garments.
Multiple cases have been seen where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
