Elon Musk's social media network X has caused major backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their garments.
Multiple cases have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
