Elon Musk's online network X has caused major backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their attire.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
