Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
