Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their garments.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
