Elon Musk's online network X has caused major outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to produce pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of generating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of persons in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
