Elon Musk's online network X has caused major outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Several cases have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
