Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread anger after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
