Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked significant backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
