Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to give reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
