Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to give reactions or further background to other users' remarks, 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 faulted for enabling users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
