Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
