Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked significant outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an standard response 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 provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
