Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to give reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
