Elon Musk's online network X has caused major backlash after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by removing their attire.
Several cases have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
