Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by taking off their garments.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
