Elon Musk's social media network X has caused significant anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by removing their attire.
Multiple instances have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to create images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
