Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by stripping their attire.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
