Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by taking off their garments.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
