Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant anger after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of persons in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
