Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked major anger after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their attire.
Several instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
