Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their attire.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to give commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of generating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
