Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused major backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their garments.
Several instances have emerged where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
