Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
