Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
