Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked significant outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to generate pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
