Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
