Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked widespread backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by removing their garments.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
