Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
