Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked significant backlash after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous instances have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
