Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked widespread anger after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Several instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
