Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked significant backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
