Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked widespread outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple instances have been seen where the system has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to create images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
