Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked major backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
