Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major outrage after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for permitting users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
