Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their garments.
Numerous examples have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
