Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused significant backlash after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous instances have emerged where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
