Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked major backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by stripping their attire.
Several cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
