Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused significant backlash after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
