Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
