Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by removing their garments.
Numerous examples have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to provide commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to generate images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
