Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked widespread anger after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have been seen 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 scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
