Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their garments.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
