Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
