Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread outrage after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
