Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked major outrage after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
