Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their garments.
Multiple examples have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
