Elon Musk's social media network X has caused major backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple instances have emerged where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for permitting users to produce pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
