Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
