Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their garments.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
