Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked major outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous instances have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for permitting users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
