Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread anger after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by taking off their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
