Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked major backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their garments.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to give reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
