Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their attire.
Several cases have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to give reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
