Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused widespread outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
