Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to generate pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
