Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked significant backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their garments.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
