Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous instances have emerged where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
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 frequently used to give commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
