Elon Musk's online network X has caused major anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to give reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for enabling users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
