Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused widespread outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
