Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked significant backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
