Elon Musk's social media network X has caused significant anger after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of people in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
