Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their attire.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
