Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread anger after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of people in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
