Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked major outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
