Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of creating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
