Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by taking off their attire.
Several instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to create images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
