Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked significant outrage after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive 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 "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services 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 quickly when they learn of it.
