Elon Musk's online network X has caused major anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their attire.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
