Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Several examples have emerged where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
