Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to generate images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
