Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked major anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by stripping their garments.
Several cases have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to generate images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
