Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous instances have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating 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 tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
