Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
