Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked significant outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
