Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked major anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by removing their attire.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for enabling users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of generating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
