Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked major anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting images of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
