Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread backlash after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to create images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
