Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked significant backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their garments.
Multiple cases have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
