Elon Musk's online network X has caused major backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by taking off their clothing.
Numerous examples have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse 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 technology companies must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of making graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.