Elon Musk's online network X has caused major outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
