Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused widespread backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying images of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
