Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their clothing.
Numerous examples have been seen where the system has been used to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.