Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked major backlash after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by removing their attire.
Multiple cases have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
