Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
