Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked significant anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
