Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major anger after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their attire.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
