Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by taking off their clothing.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to give commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
