Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to generate images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
