Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to give reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
