Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked significant backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
