Elon Musk's social media network X has caused significant backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by taking off their garments.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
