Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major backlash after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous instances have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
