Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked significant anger after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
