Elon Musk's social media network X has caused significant outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
