Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by removing their attire.
Several instances have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to produce pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of generating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing images of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
