Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their garments.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
