Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused major backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by taking off their attire.
Several instances have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
