Elon Musk's social media network X has caused significant backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their garments.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for enabling users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
