Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant backlash after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting images of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
