Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major anger after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by removing their attire.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
