Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their attire.
Numerous examples have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for permitting users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
