Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked widespread backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by taking off their attire.
Several instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
