Elon Musk's online platform X has caused major outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
