Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked major anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
