Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
