Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple cases have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
