Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked major outrage after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
