Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked major outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their garments.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
