Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked major backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Several examples have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
