Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous examples have been seen where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to give reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
