Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to generate images and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
