Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused widespread outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
