Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread backlash after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by removing their attire.
Several instances have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
