Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their attire.
Several instances have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to produce pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of making graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
