Elon Musk's social media network X has caused significant backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their clothing.
Several examples have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
