Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple cases have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing images of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
