Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked significant anger after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their attire.
Multiple cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
