Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
