Elon Musk's social media network X has caused significant outrage after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
