Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked significant backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by stripping their attire.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
