Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous instances have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
