Elon Musk's online network X has sparked major outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to give commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
