Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked widespread backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
