Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by removing their attire.
Numerous examples have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
