Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous instances have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to give reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
