Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by taking off their clothing.
Numerous examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
