Elon Musk's online network X has sparked major anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by removing their garments.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
