Elon Musk's online platform X has caused major backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their garments.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
