Elon Musk's online network X has caused major backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by removing their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
