Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
