Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked significant outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their attire.
Numerous examples have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
