Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused widespread anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by removing their garments.
Several examples have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types 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 tech firms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.