Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by stripping their attire.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
