Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by removing their attire.
Several instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material 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 free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
