Elon Musk's online network X has caused major backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Several instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.