Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked widespread anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their garments.
Numerous cases have been seen where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
