Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked widespread backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by taking off their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to create images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
