Elon Musk's social media network X has caused major backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
