Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple instances have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate 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 actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
