Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked widespread anger after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by stripping their attire.
Multiple cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
