Elon Musk's social media network X has caused significant anger after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to create images and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
