Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked major backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous instances have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for enabling users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
