Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by removing their garments.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
