Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
