Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate 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 "appropriate measures" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
