Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous instances have emerged where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
