Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.