Elon Musk's social media network X has caused major outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous examples have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
