Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by taking off their garments.
Several examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
