Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"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 challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
