Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their garments.
Several cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
