Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked widespread anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
