Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by removing their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of people in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
