Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked widespread anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous examples have been seen where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
