Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked major anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by removing their attire.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
