Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous instances have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
