Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
