Elon Musk's online network X has sparked major anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
