Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked significant backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their clothing.
Several examples have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
