Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked major backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous instances have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
