Elon Musk's online platform X has caused major anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous examples have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to provide commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to generate pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.