Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to give reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
