Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked widespread outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to generate photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
