Elon Musk's social media network X has caused major backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their garments.
Numerous instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for enabling users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
