Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their attire.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for permitting users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
