Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused significant outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
