Elon Musk's social media network X has caused major anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
