Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Several instances have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
