Elon Musk's online network X has sparked major outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by removing their garments.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
