Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused major anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of generating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
