Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked widespread anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by taking off their clothing.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
