Elon Musk's social media network X has caused major outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
