Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked major outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
