Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by removing their attire.
Numerous instances have emerged where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of people in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
