Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked widespread backlash after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have been seen where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
