Elon Musk's online network X has sparked major anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by removing their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of making inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
