Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked widespread anger after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their attire.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating 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 action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.