Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous examples have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
