Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by stripping their attire.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
