Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked widespread backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple cases have been seen where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
