Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
