Elon Musk's social media network X has caused significant outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to give reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
