Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked significant outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by removing their clothing.
Several instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images created 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 become aware of it.
