Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked major outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by removing their garments.
Several examples have emerged where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
