Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
