Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by removing their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
