Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
