Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked significant outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
