Elon Musk's online network X has sparked major anger after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
