Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous cases have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
