Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked widespread anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Several cases have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
