Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their garments.
Multiple cases have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
