Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked major backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their attire.
Multiple cases have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images 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 forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.