Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked major outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing images of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
