Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to provide reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
