Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked major backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
