The social media platform X has caused major backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
