Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
