Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked significant outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
