Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked significant backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.