Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused significant outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
