Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their clothing.
Several cases have surfaced where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
