Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked widespread outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by removing their attire.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
