Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to create images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
