Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked widespread anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
