Elon Musk's online platform X has caused major anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their attire.
Numerous instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to generate photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
