Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their garments.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
