Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by removing their attire.
Numerous examples have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to produce pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
