Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked major backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
