Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by stripping their attire.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
