Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked major outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by removing their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for enabling users to generate pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
