Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant anger after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by stripping their attire.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to give commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
