Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major backlash after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by removing their attire.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
