Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
