Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their attire.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to generate images and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
