Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous examples have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
