Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by stripping their garments.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
