Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked significant anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
