Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by removing their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
