Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
