Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
