Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused widespread outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by removing their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
