Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their garments.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing images of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
