Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by taking off their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to create images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
