Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
