Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused widespread anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to give commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
