Elon Musk's social media network X has caused significant anger after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
