Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked major backlash after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to give commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
