Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant anger after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by removing their garments.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
