The social media network X has provoked major outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to create images and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
