Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked major anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
