Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by stripping their garments.
Several cases have emerged where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
