Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked significant anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their garments.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
