Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked major backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
