Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked widespread backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to give commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
