Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked major anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by removing their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to create images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
