Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked significant backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by removing their attire.
Multiple instances have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
