Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked major outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their attire.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
