Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked widespread outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
