Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked significant outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their attire.
Multiple examples have been seen where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to produce pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
