Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous instances have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
