Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked widespread anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Several cases have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
