Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused widespread outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by removing their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create images and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
