Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying images of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
