Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by taking off their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
