Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked significant backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by taking off their garments.
Several instances have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
