Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to create images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
