Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked significant outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous examples have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
