Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
