Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked widespread backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their garments.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
