Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked significant outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their attire.
Several examples have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
