Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked widespread outrage after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by stripping their clothing.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing likenesses of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
