Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked widespread anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by removing their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
