Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked widespread outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by removing their attire.
Multiple cases have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to give reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
