Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked major anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their garments.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
