Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused major outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to give reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
