Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked widespread outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of generating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
