Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked widespread backlash after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
