Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
