Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their clothing.
Numerous cases have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms 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 "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for permitting users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of making inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
