Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by taking off their clothing.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.