Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their attire.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
