Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked significant backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous instances have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
