Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked widespread anger after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to give commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
