Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused major outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple cases have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
