Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous examples have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to give reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
