Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple cases have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
