Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by taking off their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
