Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
