Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused major outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Several instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for enabling users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
