Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Numerous instances have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution 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 "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
