Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their garments.
Several cases have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to produce pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
