Elon Musk's social media network X has caused significant outrage after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by stripping their garments.
Several examples have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
