Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
