Elon Musk's social media network X has caused significant outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to provide commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of generating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
