Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread outrage after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—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 users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
