Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their attire.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
