Elon Musk's online platform X has caused major outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by removing their garments.
Multiple instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
