Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple cases have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform 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 Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
