Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous instances have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
