Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked major backlash after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their clothing.
Several examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
