Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused significant anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by removing their attire.
Several examples have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
