Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked significant backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by removing their attire.
Multiple cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
