Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked major backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate images and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
