Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked widespread anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
