Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by taking off their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.