Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked widespread outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to give reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
