Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked major anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their attire.
Several examples have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
