Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by removing their clothing.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to create images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
