Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Several cases have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting images of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
