Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to create images and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
