Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous examples have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share 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 obligated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
