Elon Musk's online network X has caused major outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple instances have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
