Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked widespread backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to create images and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
