Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Numerous instances have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for enabling users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making 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 yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
