Elon Musk's online network X has sparked major backlash after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by removing their garments.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
