Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked significant outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their garments.
Multiple cases have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
