Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused widespread outrage after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
