Elon Musk's online network X has caused major backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
