Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked significant outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.