Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to give reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
