Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to give commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
