Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked major outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous examples have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
