Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked significant anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for enabling users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
