Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
