Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous examples have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to generate images and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
