Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused major anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," 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 illegal to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
