Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked widespread anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous examples have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
