Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked widespread backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to generate pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
