Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked significant anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
