Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked major backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by removing their garments.
Several cases have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
