Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked major backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Several instances have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to give commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
