Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked significant anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by stripping their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to give commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for enabling users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
