Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
