Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked major outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous instances have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
