Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked significant outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by removing their attire.
Numerous instances have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, 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 required to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
