Elon Musk's online platform X has caused major outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by removing their attire.
Multiple cases have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to generate photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures 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 forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
