Elon Musk's online network X has sparked major backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by removing their garments.
Multiple instances have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
