Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their attire.
Several cases have been seen where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
