Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by removing their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
