Elon Musk's online platform X has caused major outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by stripping their garments.
Several instances have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
