🔗 Share this article

Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked major anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by taking off their attire.

Multiple instances have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.

Developer Response and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".

"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.

It is often used to provide commentary or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

History of Controversy and Policy

The tool has been faulted for permitting users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of generating graphic material of celebrities.

"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.

XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images created with AI.

It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.