Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked major outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Several cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
