Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to generate pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of generating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
